Over the horizon
by ifonlyyouknowit
Summary: Heartbroken bartender Callie fled from the mistake she made, arrived in the new city tried to get back on her feet with support from her best friend. PEDS surgeon Arizona who was afraid to settle down, due to commitment issue or just simply haven't find the one yet? Would the two of them see the sunrise over the horizon together?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, I just borrowed the name of the characters for entertaining, no intention to violate any copyrights.

* * *

Chapter 1

"Dr. Robbins!"

"Dr. Sloan, nice job in there, even though I still don't agree to apply plastic surgery on a child…" Arizona talked without lifting her head from the sink.

"Ha ha, really have to say you are one of the most stubborn women I know. The kid is about to start high school…" Mark couldn't take away the smirk on his face.

"I know I know, he took enough school yard craps, he should have a chance to lose those man boobs, that's why I agreed to assist. I am stubborn but not unreasonable, you know." Arizona replied with a playful sigh, both of them knew this surgery gave the poor boy a better life after all.

They decided to head to the cafeteria for lunch, all in a sudden Mark looked at Arizona with a serious face. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yes?"

"Would guys with boobs be the kind of guys that you might go out with, even have sex with? I mean, there are boobs! You like them as much as I do." Mark ended the question with a naughty laugh, made Arizona laugh along.

"Ewww… what kind of question was that? I like WOMEN, not just the boobs! You love boobs, would you kiss those man boobs then?"

"Oh come on, I came up with this joke days ago, couldn't dare to bring it up otherwise you would turn down the surgery again, I had to get it out of me."

"Grow up, Mark." They stepped in the elevator together.

"Fine. Hey, you're up for a drink tonight? Celebrate the successful surgery?"

"Sounds good, but please tell me it won't be just you & me," Arizona glanced at Mark and continued "I can't stand to be your hot-chick-gay-or-not detector all night, or compete with each other see which of us could pick up more women."

"I've changed!" Mark blurted out.

"Ya ya ya, once a man whore…"

"I love Lexie, I love my girlfriend. God I love the sound of it, my girlfriend. How about you and yours?"

"I don't have a girlfriend." Arizona asserted firmly.

"Arizona, everyone knew about you and that ortho …"

"Nothing serious," Arizona cut in before Mark even finished. "Really, we just hang out, yes we have sex, but we really haven't talk about being exclusive or else. For all people, you should be no stranger to this condition."

"You hooked up with her 4 months ago, since then you stopped sleeping around, that sounds being exclusive to me." Mark stated matter of fact, leading both of them to the cafeteria.

"I stopped sleeping around because I am getting busy at work, and the Bailey Almighty had a talk with me in the gallery once, plastic guys fooling around won't hurt their reputations, contrarily, women have more faith in them because those guy's hands touched hundreds or even thousands of boobs and asses, those are sick kind of experienced hands. But as for a pediatric surgery, I have a reputation to maintain, don't want any patients to have doubt in me." Arizona explained heedlessly, looked around to search for their friends in the meantime.

"Ouch, should I feel being insult by Bailey?" Mark pretended being hurt and followed Arizona to join Teddy and Owen's table.

"Nope, she said that while we were watching you giving a boob job, she was kind of admired your experienced hands."

"That woman really have a way to give compliment, never know should feel insulted or flattered." Then Mark shifted the subject for the whole group of the people on the table. "Anyway, back to the plan for today, my friend's pub across the street is going to be opened tonight, I have to be in there, anyone wants to join? I was promised with free drinks tonight."

"A pub across the street?" "Where?" Both Teddy & Arizona asked the same time.

"Women are really self-centered, aren't they?" Mark looked over to Owen but didn't find agreement from the guy, so he continued "The shop right around the corner, being covered for weeks under construction, there is the pub, called HORIZON."

"Right… Good location for a pub. But why did it take such a long time to renovate the place? It took like 2 months I think, I thought they made it for something else." Teddy asked.

"Well, you can ask my friend tonight."

"OK, I'm in."

Mark turned to Arizona again, "Come with your girlfriend?"

"I will be there but I don't have a girlfriend to join us, and no, I am not coming with that person you assume that is my girlfriend." Arizona answered with an annoyed tone.

Mark and Teddy looked at her with snickers, and Owen just concentrated in the sandwich in front of him.

xxxxx

Every surgeon hated it when a lame surgery ran long, Arizona was no exception. She was 2 hours late for the gathering with her workmates in that new pub, before changing into her street clothes, she pulled out the phone from her lab coat which was hanging in the locker, found that she had 2 missed messages from the same person, she thought about it for a moment and then replied the sender with _Sorry I have plan tonight, rain check?_

She wasn't looking for a relationship right now, maybe she should do something or stop doing something so people won't assume she was having one. Or maybe not stop stop, just had to try not to be so attached.

She groaned to herself – dating was hard, having a relationship was hard, even having a causal relationship was not easy. Ummm… no, that wasn't any relationship, that was just… sex, 2 grown women having good time together, no attachment… While she was talking to herself, the phone buzzed that signaled an income text _OK babe, call me when you can._ "Holy shit, she gave me pet name…" She walked out of the hospital with a horrible feeling in her stomach, maybe some drinks could help to ease that.

She walked into the pub and found it was packed, well, seemed Mark did a good job to promote the place, almost half of the hospital staffs were here. The place looked kinda rough, concrete walls, dark tables, dark chairs, dim lights, it had a strange kind of vibes, felt like a bat cave, totally a place for a burnouts to spend a night to get wasted.

On the left was the bar, bunch of guys were crowding in there waiting for their drinks, wouldn't even see the bartenders or the décor of the bar. The opposite side was a small stage for band performance, but it was empty, seemed they couldn't get any band for the grand opening then.

She looked over to the tables, found her friends occupied the biggest table in the room, then she walked toward them through the small dance floor.

"Hey you made it!" Mark shouted out, obviously a little drunk already. "Welcome to the HORIZON."

"Hey where's your girl? Where's Col…" Alex shouted out as well, without a doubt he was a bit drunk too, tried to take the advantage of free drinks. Arizona stopped him before he said more "You finished that sentence then you'll be out of my service, period!"

"Dude, you are no fun, you need a drink. What do you want? I'll get it for you, and everyone!" Alex mumbled while stood up heading to the bar.

"I'll have a Manhattan with extra cherry." Arizona settled herself next to Bailey, who was drinking something in weird blue color. Arizona looked at her with concern eyes, "What are you drinking Miranda?" "I have no idea, Yang brought it for me, it tasted real~ly great." She answered inarticulately.

Arizona looked over to Cristina and found she was binge drinking tequila with Meredith, then she asked Mark who was on the other side on the table "What is Miranda drinking? That doesn't look right…" "Oh, my friend let Cristina fooled around behind the bar for a while, she mixed something up and only Bailey liked it, so we gave them all to her." Mark said with a huge grin in his face, apparently they had a great time before Arizona arrived. In the meantime, Alex came back with a tray full of hard stuffs.

"OK, where is your friend who owns this place? I have to warn him about you drunken fools, he would be out of business within a month, no, a week if he kept letting you guys having free drinks."

That got the attention from Cristina "Oh come on roller girl, don't be such a mood buster, let me fix you a rainbow drink…" She tried to get up but Meredith stopped her by grabbing her shoulder "You were banned to go behind the bar, remember? You kept mixing Irish bombs that may get you arrested."

"Yeah right…" Cristina thought about it for a while, with a smile of satisfaction in her face, "I had a great time, Mer. Ah by the way, roller girl, the friend of Mark is a woman, not a 'he'."

"Aha, a woman friend Mark, an old hook up?" Arizona was happy that she may got back to Mark about the 'girlfriend' comment earlier.

"No!" He turned to Lexie with a panic face, "No babe, really, she is just a dear friend back in New York, nothing more." It amused both Arizona & Lexie with his reaction, seemed Mark really care about Lexie, Arizona made a mental note that she would use this to make some fun herself.

"Come blondie, let me introduce you to my best friend, after Derek of course, but she surely is my number 1 female best friend, and with her moving to here now, maybe she could climb up to real number 1 since Derek is married and getting boring …" Mark was rumbling all the way toward the bar, jeez he really had drank too much.

The bar was still packed, guys seemed didn't want to go where else but staying there, there must be a hot chick bartending, Arizona thought to herself, "wise business move, your friend is clever."

Mark didn't get what she was talking about, just led her walked around the bar, instead of trying to push away the guys to approach the bar, they were behind it now.

"Here she is! My number one female best friend Miss Calliope Torres!" Drunken Mark threw himself into Callie, made her dropped a bottle of beer in the sink before trying to catch the man, and made the rest of the men gave him jealous glares.

And all Arizona could think about was – I am right, it's a hot chick, a very hot Latina.

"Mark, are you ok? I told you I'll clock you with a beer bottle if you called me Calliope, you're drunk already? Hey the night is still young old man." Callie joked to the man in her embrace.

"Of course not, I just love to show those hungry animals that I could hug you like this." Mark glanced to the guys surrounded the bar, Callie quickly slapped the back of his head "Hey, they are my customers."

Arizona stood behind Mark, couldn't help to check out this stunning woman, especially after Mark spun her around and now that perfect curvy body in a tight jeans was right in front of her.

Escaped from Mark's grasp, she found Arizona stood behind her and stared at her ass, a smirk on her face and then reach out a hand "Hi, you must be one of the friend of this guy, he always makes friend with the hot ones, I'm Callie."

"Arizona, Robbins." Arizona returned to earth, gave a shy smile and looked into Callie's eyes while shaking hands "I like your place, special."

"You mean raw and cold?" Mark interrupted before put his arm around Callie's shoulder.

"No…"

"You can say that, actually that is what I go for. Let's head to the table, I can use a break." Callie turned around to talk to the other bartender "Joe, can you handle this alone for a while? I'll be back." Then three of them walked to the table together, Arizona in the front, Mark followed with Callie still wrapped under his arm. Just after few steps away from the bar, Mark stopped and whispered something in Callie's ear, she looked at Mark squarely, eyes widened and growled "WHAT? WHY?"

Arizona heard the sudden conversation, stopped and turned to them.

"Callie, I just… I don't want… I… I… I… just…." Clearly, poor Mark didn't except this reaction from his friend, now he was trying to find a good reason in his intoxicant brain to calm her, but nothing came up.

"So, you think slept with me was that shameful that you don't want me to mention it in front of your precious friends? For your information, I didn't even put that in mind, what kind of person you think I am?" Callie was so wrathful, a finger pointed to Mark's face while she barked out the words, luckily they were still far away from the table.

Arizona couldn't help herself to whisper an "Oh..." Well, it wasn't unnoticed by the furious Latina.

"Not you too! What is wrong with you people in here? Seriously, why are people so judgmental in here?" She wheeled around after giving a dead glare to Arizona.

"Callie, wait!" Mark tried to grab Callie's wrist to stop her "I didn't mean that."

"No you are! You know what? My 'best friend', your privilege is over, no more free drinks for you and your judgmental friends." With that, she strode out to the back of the bar.

Arizona looked at the defeated man, still shocked with what just happened in less than a minute.

"Well, she doesn't handle stress well, and very insecure, she could easily snapped someone's head off like that…" Mark forced a smile, then shook his head slight, headed back to the table with Arizona. "She'll be fine later, now I just have to explain to the guys that our party is over, shit."

"Sorry Mark, I think I blew it because I joked about you and her hooked up before…" This conversation stopped when they reached to the table.

Once they realized the fun was over, and actually they had quite enough of drinks already, people started to dismiss. Lexie helped Derek to get Meredith and Cristina home, Teddy carried Miranda back to the hospital for a banana bag, and Alex… well he left with a blonde long ago. Arizona and a sober up Mark stayed in their table chatting.

"So you and Callie, huh?" Arizona asked nonchalantly, but deep down she felt kinda disappointed, she always had a thing for brunette, let alone that curvy body…

"We hooked up in her bar in New York years ago, remained friends afterward and every time when she needed me, physically or mentally, I was there. Especially before and after the time her marriage came to an end, she was a mess, Addie and I literally had to go over to pick her up from the floor, figuratively." Mark talked to Arizona, sipping his beer but glanced over the now less busy bar, gazed at Callie who resumed to her position a while ago, was laughing with some guy in front of her. Arizona followed his glance and couldn't help to stare at that mesmeric smiling face.

Sigh, she is batting for Mark's team… Arizona said to herself.

After another while of chit chat, Arizona was about to drag Mark to leave, out of the corner of her eye she saw Callie approached the table with a bottle of Tequila in her hand.

"Hmmm… peace?" Callie said to both of them sheepishly.

Mark had a huge grin in his face, pulled Callie's face with both hands for an audible mouth to mouth kiss. "Listen, if you keep snap at me like this, I won't be there for you anymore."

"I know and I am sorry, Mark. And you," she turned to Arizona, "I didn't mean to shout at you, I wasn't myself earlier…"

Mark mumbled "yeah right…." That earned himself another slap on the back of his head. "Shut it Mark." Callie beamed mischievously.

"That is fine, I just need to remember not to piss you off, not to hide you from anyone, and have a good protection for my head from your slaps." Sensed the tension was gone, Arizona started to relax and joked with this beautiful woman in front of her.

"Hey you're hot and funny, I like you!" Callie winked at Arizona, that made the blonde blushed out of the unexpected compliment, thanks to the dim lights it wasn't so noticeable.

"Stop flirting with my friend for a moment, seriously, I am begging you Callie, I know it may hurt your feeling, but please don't take it the wrong way, it will be grateful if you do not mention we had sex to anyone… this eavesdropper," he signaled Arizona "overheard then I couldn't undo it, Lexie won't be happy that I keep hanging out with you if she knew, I love that girl and I don't want to lose her." Mark tried to pull out his best poppy dog eyes, Callie raised her eyebrow and stared at him for a while, then looked at Arizona, and looked back at Mark.

"First of all, I don't intend to brag about our sex to anyone, there wasn't anything to brag about anyway. I don't need you, didn't you see I got people lining up for me around the bar? But how about you two? Lexie doesn't know you two or she accepted that you keep one fuck buddy around?"

"What do you mean by nothing to brag about? I am a golden boy!" "What are you talking about? I am not his fuck buddy!" Mark and Arizona blurted out in the same time.

Chose to ignore Mark, Callie faced Arizona with an amused look. "Mark never passes on any hot woman, or make friend with any woman who he hasn't slept with yet. How could you keep your innocence?"

Arizona felt herself turned into a stupid teenager in front of this beautiful Latina, she wasn't shy naturally, but she just couldn't form any word to answer the question, and simpered like a fool with her face red to the tip of her ears.

"She doesn't want me, she speaks vagina monologues." Mark pretended to be hurt before shot the tequila into his mouth.

"Really?" Callie's eyebrow raised up even higher than before.

"Ya, gold star!" Mark stated it with a broad grin on his face, but Arizona remained silent. She was not ashamed of her sexuality, just felt not so comfortable of being discussed in front of 2 straight persons, especially with this glamorous woman that she was kind of… interested with. Well, Callie was straight but a girl could hope, right?

Observed Arizona's hesitation, Callie saved her new friend by turning the attention back to Mark again. "So, you are planning on settle down with that little girl? Isn't she about the age as your daughter?"

"Cal, maybe it's time you know, everyone needs someone, and when you found the right person, you knew it and you just want to stay, not running away, not to reach for an exit, all you could think about was to spend every single moment together…"

Both women silently listened to Mark, realized the man whore had been changed and seemingly deeply in love with his girlfriend.

"Just last time when little Sloan came over, it scared her. She knew I had history but when it hit her in the face, that was something else, she couldn't handle it. From time to time she received glares from the nurse because of me, or freak out when a slutty drug rep winked at me, knowing my ex-sex friend is here and stay close? I am afraid I may have to choose between you two." Mark finished with a long sigh.

"Tell me you would choose me, Mark!" Callie gave him a playful scowl, Arizona just shook her head with a soft chuckle.

Arizona watched the two friends joked and teased each other for a while, then decided to call it the night. Before she left, Callie made her promised to come back again, of course she would.

On the way home, she pulled out the phone and found that there had 2 other messages from Colleen about an hour ago, asked about her night and wished her sleep tight…


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, I just borrowed the name of the characters for entertaining, no intention to violate any copyrights.

A/N: I'm glad you guys like my story, the start of everything is always the best, I just hope I could keep up with your standard, after all, this is my first and English is not really my language. I have totally 10 chapters around 30K finished, will put them up gradually. Again, thanks for reading my fic.

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Chapter 2

Arizona didn't have to get to the hospital until noon, she was lying in bed and thinking, something Mark had said from last night hit her – everyone needs someone, the right one. Had she met hers yet?

She went through her mental little black book, she loved and was loved before, but was there anyone serious enough to make her think about 'forever'? Blank. Then she thought about Colleen, the woman that she'd been unwittingly sleeping with for over 4 months exclusively, did they have something more than just sex in the on-call room?

Of course they had good time together, the sex was good and Colleen... fairly speaking, she had curve in the right place that may drive the blonde crazy sometime. But was that enough? Something was missing and that just kept Arizona away from getting more seriously with Colleen.

Maybe it was time to put a stop on it.

Then the Latina from last night crossed her mind, the pair of soulful black eyes, the plump lips, the long raven hair, the alluring cleavage… She felt butterflies in her stomach when they locked eyes over the chat, she felt her heart skipped a beat from hearing those carefree laughter…

Not to mention the imposing personality, confidence oozed out in every move she made. Being someone with big authority issue, seeing a woman liked that? A major turn on.

_Women used to say the good guys were either taken or gay, do they know the good chicks were mostly straight?_ Arizona huffed. Even though it wasn't new for Arizona to flip someone, it was going to be a real challenge with someone had certain life experience, a surgeon liked her didn't have that kind of time anymore.

Her phone buzzed before she drowned to the dead-end street, an income message from… Colleen.

_Hey when are you getting to the hospital? Wanna meet up in our room?_

Stared at the phone for a while, she decided that she had to talk to Colleen about the situation between them, so she replied that she would be there within an hour and yes, let's meet in the on-call room.

* * *

Little over an hour later, Arizona found herself panting on the on-call room bed with an equally naked Colleen laid next to her, the brunette was lazily stroking her toned stomach, casually sweeping the base of her breasts. Her mind was still dizzied from the intense quick and dirty orgasm that Colleen just gave her. As soon as she stepped in the on-call room, the door was closed and locked, she was pushed against the door and then lips were attached to hers immediately, a tongue was forced into her mouth… well forced was an understatement, Arizona was willingly sucking that warm muscle while Colleen was kneading her boobs.

After breath returned to even, Arizona was mentally kicking herself. She was planning to have a serious talk with this woman, explained to her that this should be a simple-nothing-attached-sexual-relationship, no pet name no late night sweet dream text should be made, and now it seemed the whole thing was out of their hands, her hands precisely, she was going to end it. How could she say that to a woman who just buried the head between her legs?

"You are quiet."

"Huh?" Arizona's mind returned to the woman in her arm, looked into those lovingly brown eyes.

"You are quiet and thoughtful, like you are trying to solve the world most difficult equation in your head." Colleen giggled and stroked Arizona's brow to try to ease the frown.

Arizona sat up and turned to put on her clothes, "just thinking about a patient, that's all."

"Hey… do you have any plan tonight?" Colleen remained in bed, popped herself up by the elbows, the sheet slipped to her abdomen and left her breasts openly stared at Arizona.

"I… My shift finish at 9, I probably would be tired and…"

Colleen spoke as soon as she heard 'finish at 9', "Tomorrow is my birthday, I'm wondering if you would like to join me to have dinner tonight? My friends said we passed the age of celebrating the b-day so we just had a simple dinner days ago, but still it's a birthday, I want to spend it with… um… um…. maybe we can share a cake after midnight?"

"Oh….." Sigh, only a heartless bitch could deny a birthday girl's wish, no? "That would be ok if you don't mind to wait till that late."

"No problem, it gives me time to go home make myself pretty for you. Do you want to go over my place to pick me up?"

Oh no, no no no, don't want to look like going over to pick up the date. "Maybe we should meet in the neighborhood, so you don't have to wait for me for too long."

"You really are thoughtful." *wink*.

She smiled sheepishly, putting on the lab coat she said "You know the new pub across the street, Horizon? We meet each other there 9-ish?"

"Yes, it's a date." Colleen looked at Arizona beamed with happiness.

"It's a birthday celebration." Arizona faked a smile before opened the door and exited.

* * *

To run a pub meant you don't have a regular resting hours like most of the people, while the others enjoying the broad daylight, most of the bartenders were lying in bed catching the missing sleeping hours from the previous night.

Callie was different. She and sleep didn't get alone for years, normal tossed and turned for 2 hours, then if she was lucky, she may got like a 4 hours non-peaceful sleep.

That was why now early in the morning, she was nesting in the couch with a cup of joe in hand, enjoying couple of quiet hours. She slowly went through the event from last night, the first opening night of her new pub.

This was her third pub in a decade, but still it was an exciting moment, having a new pub was like having a new relationship, building a new history. So far, the new page started well. Mark was right, the location was perfect, people seemed nice around here, especially the staffs from the hospital across the street. She just had to remind herself to order more hard stuffs because it seemed exhausted to work in the hospital, they like their liquors strange.

She smiled to herself, at this moment, she believed the decision of moving to here were right, not to mention that she had her big brother Mark nearby again.

Last night after Arizona left, Mark started to fill in the details of his life in Seattle, his fell out with Derek over little Grey, his embarrassing broken penis incident that he didn't plan to tell Callie in the first place, praise to tequila.

She always knew Mark had a big heart but knowing he was in love, she was beyond thrilled to see this guy had grown into a cheesy man like this. Maybe the age difference between the two had something to do with it, to keep up with the young and artless, the old dog had to be cheesy… Callie couldn't help to chuckle.

Beside, Mark talked about his new best friend in Seattle. If said Callie was his baby little sister that he loved and cared, Arizona was the annoying one who could bicker over every little thing with him, that made him wanted to strangle her to death but still couldn't help to love in the same time.

Callie was gratified that the little episode she pulled in the pub didn't scared the blond beauty away, and they got the chance to know each other a little bit. The blue-eyed blonde was funny and cute, and very hot, she found herself had drawn into those sky blue eyes ... And she remembered the last time she saw such a beautiful eyes ...

Pulled herself from the memory lane, she picked up the phone, started to dial to the lawyer in New York, there was some unfinished business in there and she needed the expensive lawyer to settle them asap, especially she had no intention of going back to New York to deal with it herself.

She needed a clean start, but as long as the past was still dragging her leg, she couldn't move on.

"Hello Mr. Meyer, this is Calliope Torres..."

* * *

Arizona walked in the pub twenty minutes after 9, she took her time to finish the charts, to talk to the nurses and to change into her street clothes, because she wasn't looking forward to this, not at all.

When she stepped in the pub, the first view she had was that fascinating Latina bartender, who was pouring a glass of beer, head snapped up while she saw Arizona entered the pub, the smile grew in her face slowly. Arizona couldn't help but approached the bar to sit on the stool, to be near to that smile.

"Hi welcomed again, wanna have something to drink?"

"I…." Before Arizona could say anything, a hand slid across her back stopped on her hip. She was surprised by the sudden touch, turned her head slightly to face the handsy person, a peck was landed on her lips in an instant.

"Hey babe, you didn't see me on the table over there?" Colleen gestured a table in the conspicuous position over the seating area, but to be honest, Arizona didn't look for her.

"Sorry, I didn't see you…" A blush came up on Arizona's cheeks, she was uncomfortable with Colleen's pet name calling and touching… in front of the Latina. She glanced to Callie and just in time to catch her smile fell and turned the attention to the next customer on the opposite side of the bar.

"You are forgiven." Colleen placed another light kiss on Arizona's lips. "So, you wanna stay here, or we wanna go to a fancier place for dinner?"

Considering not really in the mood of going on 'a date', and it could be rude for entering a pub without ordering any drink, "It's getting late, maybe stay here would be nice."

"Hey bartender! Come here! We are going to order!" Colleen waved to Callie and Joe, Arizona frowned to the impolite comportment.

"Ya sure, what can I get you?" Joe turned to them with a smile.

"Tomorrow is my birthday," she said to Joe, then gazed to Arizona with a smile "to start our date tonight, how about some champagne?" hand still lingering on the hip.

"I'm not really a champagne drinking person, maybe a glass of white wine?" Arizona was fidgeting, glanced around the place hoping no one heard this conversation, or even no one saw she was in there.

Colleen pursed her lips but didn't object to the choice of drink, and then she pulled Arizona by the hip as to lead her to the table that she was occupied before. Arizona left the stool reluctantly, one last look to Callie, but the busy barkeep's attention was captured by a fair looking guy who was talking to her vigorously, the smile on her face indicated that this must be an interesting story.

Arizona and Colleen sat on the table making small talks, there wasn't much to talk about actually because it turned out they didn't have much in common, being an outdoorsy herself, Arizona couldn't understand why someone would say the best way to spend a rare sunny day in Seattle was to stay in for a movie marathon at home.

Even though Colleen was desperate to share her story, she didn't get much of the response from the other because… to be honest, it took a great story teller to make a boring story sounded interesting, let alone Colleen wasn't one. Hence, there were some moments of awkward silence between them.

From time to time Arizona found herself couldn't help to gaze over the bar, that guy was still there and Callie spent a great deal of time to chat with him between served other customers. She felt the knot in her stomach was getting bigger and bigger every second from sitting on this table in this uncomfortable situation, instead of being a couple meters away from the obviously more enchanting companion. She just wished she could switch place with that chatty guy who made Callie beamed like the sun.

Decided enough was enough, "I am sorry Colleen, it was a long day, two back to back surgeries really ate up my energy." Arizona exaggerated her exhaustion with a yawn. "Maybe I should better go home to get some sleep."

Colleen couldn't hid her disappointment, she was really looking forward to this date, candle light dinner, drinks and dance, a passionate night in her bed… totally different than their usual on-call room hook up.

"OK then, let's go to my place to have some rest." Colleen tried again desperately.

"Oh no that's not necessary, I don't have anything to change in your place anyway, I better go back to mine, that would be easier. Do you need a taxi to go home? Do you want me to call you one?" This was a low blow, but Arizona really didn't want to give Colleen a false hope of having the chance to spend the night together.

Colleen bit her bottom lip slightly, finally nodded that agreed to get a taxi outside to go home alone. They walked out of the pub together, Arizona turned to wave goodbye to Callie.

In the Latina's eyes, she saw Arizona and her date walked into the night together.

Callie shrugged off the image of Arizona left with her date out of the door, after passed a glass of beer to her waitress, she looked around her pub and smiled to herself, another successful night, the place was getting quiet in this hour but it was packed most of the night, the people enjoyed the atmosphere, and the friends of Mark were gathering on a table binged drinking again.

She genuinely liked that gang, each of them had their unique character, annoying in a way but generally speaking, they were fun to hang out with. Last night when it wasn't so busy yet, Mark begged her to give him a chance to bartend for a while, as soon as Mark finished his request, Cristina Yang jumped up and down to beg for the same, so she sat back with the rest of the group, watched Mark put extra cherries in any drinks ordered by women, and tears welled up in her eyes due to the full belly laugh when Cristina poured all kind of strange liquor together and served to a young man who just ordered a beer, had Joe grabbed her arm and nearly flung her over the counter.

Dropped the towel, indicated Joe to take over the bar, she stepped away and headed to her new friends for a break, more accurate statement – she had to flee before that guy, Archer or Alfred, made his move. This guy hovered around there the whole night boasted about his fancy car, private jet ride and flashing that luxurious watch on his wrist, if he knew Callie Torres better, he would know this kind of pretentious attitude was the last she wanted from a guy, she met this kind of people enough in this life time.

Arrived on the table, it was a lady's night, Meredith, Cristina, Lexie and Teddy were sitting there drinking quietly, but it had a sad vibes among them. Even though Cristina had her normal sourpuss expression, it was so easy to sense that she was the reason that the rest were so silent.

Callie leaned toward Teddy and asked "Jeez, who died?"

"My marriage." Cristina answered without missing a beat.

"Cristina…" Meredith landed a hand on her shoulder but didn't know what else to say.

"Well, even in the very beginning when we started dating, I declared that I don't want kids, he knew it. Now he regretted to marry a woman who doesn't want to have his children, claimed that he was unhappy so went out to fuck another woman? I am not gonna stick around to take that assault."

"But you still love him, maybe you two should go to marriage counseling first…" Lexie suggests.

"I don't know." Cristina rubbed her temples "I have things to take care of, I need to find a place to live. Owen and I bought that stupid old fire station because he loves that place, I am not going to stay there."

"Cristina, you can always stay with me." Meredith exclaimed against the idea.

"No, Owen and Derek are friends, I don't want to put him in a difficult position, and when I was there, he had to share your attention with me, it wasn't fair for him. You married to him, not me."

"You are my person, you are my priority, if my husband has a problem with it, so be it. I have to help you to save your stupid marriage."

"I don't need you to save my marriage, I can take care of myself…" Cristina was about to say something she may regret later, Callie interrupted "You can stay with me, I have a 3 bed room apartment."

"Deal!" Cristina didn't even concern when the apartment was, she just want to stay away from her cheating husband.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, I just borrowed the name of the characters for entertaining, no intention to violate any copyrights.

* * *

Chapter 3

Arizona sat in the cafeteria poking at her salad. The morning went quickly when she was busy saving a 11 years old boy, but when it had finished, she was back to her thought.

Mark slid in the seat opposite of Arizona, an apple in hand and stared at her curiously. "You know, rumor has it that you finally went on a date with the ortho nurse yesterday out in public, what'd happened?"

Of course, Horizon became the new SGMW club house, one person saw something in there, it spread in the hospital as quick as a plague.

"She said it was her birthday and then asked me to celebrate with her last night, how could I say no?"

"You are screwed." Mark held up his apple prepared to take a bite, stopped when he saw vexation written all over her face. "Listen, can I ask you something?"

"Will you drop it if I say no?" Arizona put the fork down and then ran her hair with both hands.

"No. Tell me, do you like this chick? You stopped sleeping with the other nurses after her, pretty much like what had happened to me after Lexie, didn't mean to but you respected her too much that you don't feel like sleeping with someone else anymore." Mark stopped a moment, got no response from the blonde then he continued. "In the beginning, I fought it because of Derek, he made Lexie like a forbidden fruit. You are fighting the feeling too, what is holding you back, Robbins?"

Arizona frowned and bit her lips to a thin line, she wasn't expecting this from Mark, it really took her by surprise that Mark was going to talk about feeling with her during the daytime without any alcohol in their system.

Mark added "I know, to think about settle down with someone is scary, I knew it, I was there. But look at me now, I am happy."

"I told you, I stopped fooling around because of the advice from Miranda, I care about my reputation." Then looked down to her hands on the table, she whispered "I couldn't feel the butterflies."

Mark looked confused but waited for her to continue.

Scrunched up her face, organized the thought then she looked into Mark's eyes "With previous girlfriends, I always felt butterflies all over my stomach, with Colleen I don't feel anything. It was supposed to be a no string attached arrangement, we had good time but now it turned into those cheesy comedies that fuck buddies fell for each other and deeply in love happily ever after. The only difference is that this is a one-way street, she's getting clingy but I don't feel a thing for her! It bothers me because I am torn, maybe butterflies are over-rated, it's time for me to settle down, to have someone to love and love me back, and there she is, right there loving me and all I have to do is to try to love her. But we went on a date yesterday, Mark, it bored me to death because we have nothing in common, we had nothing to talk about."

"Come on, you are either in or out, you made yourself very clear that you don't want her."

"But…. What if she's the one? What if there has no other one for me out there?"

Mark put a hand on Arizona's shoulder offered a firm squeeze. "Oh my god, you are smarter than this Robbins! You know that nobody should put up with a second choice. So what? You take the woman that you have no feeling with, hoping for a miracle to happen that one day she grown into a fascinating companion that share the same interests with you?"

Arizona narrowed her eyes smile softly to Mark "Sometime I just can't believe you are this smart."

"Damn right I am." Mark gave her a signature smirk with a wink. "You can always hope people may change, but they also may never change. Take Yang and Hunt, they are getting a divorce, Lexie told me last night."

"Seriously?"

"Yang is moving out from Hunt, the two Greys are helping her packing right now."

"So she's moving to Meredith's?" Arizona took a sip of the soda, slightly happy to change the subject and picked up some gossip to distract her.

"Nope, she's moving to Torres's. I'll go over to help moving after my shift this afternoon, you come to help?"

"Huh?" Soda almost sprayed out of her mouth "How did that happen? They just met, weren't they?"

"Well, I wasn't there to witness it, but considering the circumstances, I am not surprise that Callie would take Yang in. So, you are coming or not?"

"Sure, count me in." Secretly, she was hoping to get the chance to know more about this new friend.

* * *

"Why are we here? To pick up the key?" Arizona looked confused when the cars stopped in front of the pub, but no one answered the question. Instead, Cristina picked up a small box and led the way to the side of the pub, opened a door and stepped in. In the meantime, Mark unloaded some boxes from the truck and then yelled toward the pub "Cal, we are here!" Then motioned the blonde to take one of the boxes and followed the Grey sisters.

Took the stairs to the second floor above the pub, there was a blue door to the loft. The wall inside the apartment was the same style concrete wall as the pub downstairs but even colder because the huge living room was nearly empty, just had 2 big armchairs in the middle of the living room, few boxes lying around on the floor, not even a television set in the room.

But on the left of the apartment, there was a fully equipped kitchen with shiny stainless steel cabinets and refrigerator stood neatly along the wall, fancy cooking appliances all over the place.

Cristina went over to the refrigerator to get herself a beer, nodded the direction of one of the door "I told the room in the left, just put the boxes of clothes in there." Then sat down on the armchair before pointed to the corner of the big and empty living room "and just leave the rest of boxes over there."

Arizona looked at her in disbelief, but seeing Meredith didn't make a fuss about this, both Arizona and Lexie just simply shook their heads and following her out to get some more boxes up to the apartment.

When the three went back down on the street, there was Callie leaned against the truck talking to Mark. And when she saw the helpers, she punched Mark on the shoulder "Oh my gosh… Mark Sloan I can't believe you have those girls to life the heavy stuffs? Don't you have some poor interns to bully into doing this?"

"It was a long time ago! I promised Addie that I won't force the interns to get me coffee and dry cleaning or personal stuffs anymore, I kept my promise!"

Callie smirked at him and punched him again with lighter touch "Good for you! Leave the girls alone, Joe can help."

"Are you sure? I believe you guys must be busy in there, it's happy hours after all." Arizona said to Callie with a dimple smile.

"Oh she'll be fine, nothing she can't handle." Took the box from Lexie's hands, Mark yelled to the pub again "Joe! Come help! We have to unload these and then go back for another lot."

The three girls thanked Callie for keeping them away from the moving duty, both Greys decided to go up to the apartment to help unpacking, but Arizona had another idea.

"Hey Callie, as you released Joe out there, maybe you'll need some help inside, is there anything I can do?"

Callie couldn't help but chuckled, "Are you sure you can handle bartending, Dr. Robbins?"

"I don't know how to juggle the shaker, but capable enough to pour a beer." Arizona said with pride.

"OK, let's see what you get." Callie flashed a broad smile then followed Arizona entered the pub.

"Hey if goliath is coming to move the boxes, I may not be need in here, how about I go help in the bar as well…"

"Suck it Mark." Both women said simultaneously.

Arizona made friends easily, she and Mark became best friends after couple of surgeries together then they got closer and closer while realized they had similar personality and resemble point of view of most of the things. She approached Teddy when she found the new arrival GI Jane seemed like a lost puppy in the new environment without a friend to lean on. She voluntarily took Alex the underdog under her wings and now they had a great teacher/student relationship, sometime even liked sister/brother. Even the famous stone-cold Dr. Bailey was now her giggle sister in the hospital hallways.

Callie, on the other hand, didn't take initiative in making acquaintance, she was the kid in the back of the class. Things had changed when she got older, especially being a bartender meant she had to make small talks, but she was still the shyly insecure one who won't extend the olive branch instantly.

But with Arizona, they hit it off instantly.

Having the blonde behind the bar with her was like a blessing, not that had Joe beside her was hardship, the serious looking man was efficient and professional, but far from fun.

It was an amusement to watch Arizona laughed at her own clumsiness whenever she spilled the drinks or poured a glass of foam instead of a glass of beer, or even crashed into Callie a couple of times when they had to deliver drinks to the opposite side of the bar, well, Callie believed she did that on purpose, just to see the reaction from the Latina.

Callie found herself unable to get mad to those dimples, and the angelic laugher was deadly contagious, soon after they co-bartended the place, she found her face hurt from hanged the grin for too long. But she wasn't complaining.

Arizona was having the time of her life as well, she still kept traces of childishness inside her, tonight the bar was her playground, especially, there had an excellent playmate beside her. Each time she did something stupid, the partner in crime just flashed a mega-watt smile then offered her a helping hand, or sometime a playful smack on the head, or the hip, or the bottom.

"I wore heelys at work, the hospital is so big, it takes forever to run from place to place, with my wheels I could just easily slide along the hallway. I think you should have one in here, you know, you could skate from one side to the other…" Arizona tried to hold a sincere face to the brunette after handed a glass of beer to the guy sitting in far left of the bar, but she just couldn't wiped away the mischievousness shinning in her eyes.

"Right, that could save me like… 5 steps, thank you very much. By the way, you wore heelys in the hospital? Around sick people and oh my god, injured patients?" Callie dramatically raised her voice an octave and scrunched up the face, it was just so pleasurable to tease the blonde. "Don't you think they suffered enough? You had to make them worry to have you crash into them?"

"Rude! I am skilled, and my patients love it! It is cute!" A full force dimples smile displayed.

"I bet you are cute, stop putting umbrella in that scotch, it is a scotch, not a tequila sunrise!" She leaned over tried to take away the paper umbrella that Arizona just put into the glass. But the blonde blocked the glass with her whole body, "It's cute!" And then reached out to pick up a cherry.

"Scotch doesn't do cute, scotch is badass! And don't you dare to put that cherry into there, that's going to cost me 8 bucks!" Callie squealed and grabbed the cherry holding hand before she dropped it in the drink. Arizona pouted and then put the cherry into her own mouth instead, evilly glanced over the Latina behind, she placed the glass in front of Derek who ordered this drink and said "6 dollars."

"8!" Callie tilted her head looked closely face to face to Arizona with a playful stare. But that didn't scare the naughty child.

"6, since it has no cherry inside." Arizona just smirked back to Callie and offered a wink to Derek, who looked at both of them amusedly. Finally he put down a 10 dollar note on the counter "Keep the change."

"Oh thank you Derek." Beamed proudly, she put the change… umm… 4 bucks in her jeans pocket.

"Excuse me?" Callie looked at her with the stare again.

"What? I earned my tip." Arizona shrugged her shoulders and pretended she was busy wiping the counter top with a towel.

"You earned your 2 bucks, give me back my other 2!" She tried to grasp the perky blonde so that she could reach into the pocket to get the money "I can't believe you fancy surgeon would covet after these little profits from us little business." But the blonde just kept squirming, "I can't believe you charge 8 bucks for a drink without cherry!"

Everyone was laughing with their childlike grapple, but they were just having too much fun to even care about the rest of the people around.

"Wow, somebody, throw them some Jell-O!" Mark entered the pub in time to catch the show, immediately sat down next to Derek attempted to get the front row seat, but the women stopped the scuffle from the voice of Mark. Both panted a bit from laughing too hard, Callie wrapped her arm around Arizona's shoulder and asked "So how is the moving? All done?"

"Ya, all done, Joe's putting the trash in the back, then he'll come back here."

"Oh…" Arizona sounded a little disappointed because that meant her time with the brunette in this playground was over.

Neither did Callie was pleased, it had been a long time she laughed so freely, she hated it when it had to end. "Oh… thanks for helping out tonight, you are a better help than Mark or Cristina."

"Yeah, Jell-O wrestling always helps the business." Mark whispered to Derek, but it was not too quiet to be unnoticed by the 2 women in front of him, "Shut it Mark!" "Gross, Mark!"

As Joe returned to his position, Arizona ran around to the other side of the counter settled next to Mark.

"What can I get you?" Callie said, sent the blonde a wink.

"Manhattan, with extra cherries." It made both of the women and Derek burst out laughing, Mark just looked confused between them, "OK, does cherry mean something? Did someone share a cherry story?"

They just laughed harder as Arizona smacked Mark's head so hard that he almost banged on the counter top, "Grow up Mark, not everything has to be dirty."

"Fine, don't tell me, I'll get it out from Torres after she got drunk. So Derek, your wife wants me to tell you that she's not coming home tonight, she'll stay here to make sure Yang got settled."

Derek took another sip of his cherry-less scotch, smiled bitterly before slid down the stool, "After all, Yang's her person. Good evening, ladies." Then he turned around to depart.

"So, Meredith's staying upstairs, and Lexie decided that she should stay to help as well. I am not going home yet, care to drink with me?"

"Sure, I have a day off tomorrow." Arizona said as she pulled her phone from the bag to check for message, she was so occupied the whole night, didn't even think about her mobile at all. Unlocked the device, she found a couple of calls and several messages were missed, all came from the same sender.

"Something's wrong?" Mark asked when he saw the blonde looked at the phone with a frown.

"Colleen." Arizona answered with a pout, fingers were still working on the phone.

Callie asked as she placed the drink in front of the blonde "Your hot date from last night?"

"Ya!" Mark answered for her, with a huge naughty smile in the corner of his mouth. Arizona just rolled her eyes, continued to check the rest of the messages.

Callie gazed at Arizona for a few seconds, wanted to say something but decided to let it slide, turned her heels to the other side of the bar to serve another customers. Arizona finally finished the phone and looked up to Mark.

"Colleen waited outside the apartment building for me, on her birthday, damn it!"

"What? How did she know where do you live?"

"Apparently, some nurses followed you home before, and people knew we live across the hall, so 2 plus 2, she is or was there waiting for me." Arizona covered her face with her hands and silently groaned.

"What do you mean she is or was there?"

Looked at the phone again, Arizona answered "She called me about 3 hours ago, twice. Then couples…. Umm… actually nine messages telling me that she was there waiting for me, the last message was like an hour ago, she should be gone by now…. Shouldn't she?" Panic was sudden written all over her face.

"Well, she does seem clingy, so I won't be surprised if she is still there to try to 'surprise' you." Mark shrugged, took a sip of his scotch.

"What am I supposed to do, Mark?"

"Well, go over there to see if she's still there, it is… it was her birthday after all. If she's still there, break it up with her for god sakes, rip the bandage. If she was gone, come back to drink with me."

Arizona took a big gulp of her drink before slipped down from the stool, Mark gave her a firm pat on the shoulder "You can do this, be strong."

Looked over to Callie wanting to say goodbye before took off, seeing the brunette was leaning again the counter top talking to some guy with a smiling on her face, so she just patted Mark's shoulder in return, then walked toward the door.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, I just borrowed the name of the characters for entertaining, no intention to violate any copyrights.

A/N : Thanks for the support, I am really grateful that you guys like the story.

* * *

Chapter 4

Arizona trotted toward the apartment, saw a shadow sitting on the step leaning against the door flame of the front gate from afar, took a deep breath she prepared herself.

"Hey…"

"Oh my god Arizona, I am so worry about you, you didn't answer the calls or messages…" Colleen jumped up when she saw Arizona appeared, quickly grabbed the blonde in a hug.

"I am sorry, I had my phone in the bag and didn't check it. Look, we need to talk."

"OK, let's go up to your apartment so we could talk… or whatever you want to do." Colleen leaned over to whisper into Arizona's ear and tried to clasp their hands.

"Um… Colleen, I am sorry." Arizona stepped backward tried to keep the distance between the flirty woman. "I… I am not looking for anything serious right now. We had great time together and I thought we had an agreement that we were not going toward anything but a fling, I am sorry that I gave you a false idea, I really do. Colleen you are a wonderful woman, I am truly sorry that we are not in the same page, it's not you, it's just me, I don't think we 'click'…" While rambling the breakup speech, all Arizona could think about was how sucked it was to breakup with someone whom actually had nothing to breakup with.

"What do you mean we don't click? You surly didn't complain about that when you had your tongue in my mouth!"

"Colleen…"

"NO! I don't understand, we are together for 5 months, we have great sex, I know the feeling between us is real, I care about you, I love you Arizona! I know you are scared but I am here and I won't let you push me away, I won't leave you because you are scared of the feeling." Tears started to fall from Colleen's big brown eyes, she reached out her hands to try to grab Arizona's, but the blonde took another step backward.

"Colleen, I am really sorry that I misled you, we had a great 5 months together that was right, but I wasn't… We weren't …. I… Look, it wasn't because of I'm scared or something, I just didn't think we are or we were an item. I misled you, I am truly sorry about that."

"I will do anything you want Arizona, please… please just give it another try, OK? We… we… let's go to movies, candle light dinners… or we can go on a trip together, I still have some holidays, we can go away… We are great together, I love you I really do love you, I love you from the bottom of my heart, I … " Colleen sobbed out her pleading and dropped on the ground, it broke Arizona's heart to witness someone broke down, especial she was the reason of this.

She knelt down in front of the brunette, gently stroked the sobbing woman's arm and tried to explain again. "I am sorry… I just…"

"I knew you are sorry, you just keep saying you are sorry, why can't you just love me back, Arizona? Huh? You are a coward, you are a coward, you are a coward…" Colleen burst out her anger toward the blond, but she lost her voice in the middle of it.

Arizona tugged the miserable in a tight embrace, they remained the pose for the awhile, no one said anything except Colleen's sob and hiccup.

Eventually, Colleen spoke up. "So it was just sex."

"Colleen…"

"Say it!"

Arizona released the woman from her arms and stood up, the other one followed suit.

"I am sorry, I really thought we had an understanding that it was just sex." Arizona tried to put on her best apologize face, but apparently Colleen didn't buy it.

In a split second, a shrewd slap landed on Arizona's left cheek.

She was in shock, but she knew she deserved it.

Blue eyes met teary brown eyes, Arizona fixated on the teardrop that followed the previous trace slowly falling down the cheek, when it reached the corner of the lips, she heard Colleen's voice. "I really do love you, remember that Dr. Robbins."

Arizona didn't return to the pub after seeing Colleen jumped into her car to drive away, she just wanted to go home, take a shower and get some sleep, after all, 'breakup' was exhausted.

* * *

It's 10 in the morning and Arizona was sitting on the couch reading the morning post with a cup of coffee in hand, today was her day off and she was glad to stay away from the hospital, because the thing with Colleen? No doubt that was spreading around there right this moment.

The nurses had a strange kind of bond that liked to share information, not professional details, not their own matters but the others, especially about the doctors. She still couldn't believe that she learned about Mark and Lexie not from the lovers themselves, she got the information from her scrub nurse, who heard from another nurse in derm when she went over to pick up some cream, and the derm nurse knew that from a nurse in plastic when they passed on a report of a patient, the nurse in plastic overheard that from a couple of nurses in the cafeteria, apparently some interns saw Lexie grabbed Mark into an on-call room…

Daydreaming about what kind of rumor she may get into, suddenly there was a light knock on the door, she went over to open it, there was Mark with a polite smile plaster on his face.

"Hey, can I come in for some coffee?" Mark asked, and Arizona didn't answer him but stepped aside to let him walked in the apartment.

"Is she still here?" Mark whispered and tried to look if there had any sign of a third person in there with them.

"If by she you meant Colleen, no, she didn't come up here." Arizona placed a cup of coffee on the coffee table, gestured Mark to join her in the couch.

"There was more than one _she_ you meant to meet last night?" Mark couldn't help to tease. "What had happened then? You didn't come back to the pub. Callie and I thought you got lucky."

"Mark, you told Callie? God can you stop being such a terrible gossip?" Arizona gave the man a glare. "No wonder the hospital is like a freaking gossip mill."

"Hey, I'm an excellent gossip. Just tell me, what had happened?"

"OK, she was downstairs, threw herself to me when I arrived, I told her that we didn't work and I didn't know we were anything but sex friend, she started to cry and told me she loved me and thought there was something going on between us. I told her it wasn't and she slapped me. She left, I came home to sleep." Arizona took a sip of her coffee after she shrugged her shoulders.

"Holy hell, she slapped you?"

"Ya, she slapped me, ha ha. Just drop it, it's over now, finally."

"Well, luckily she's an ortho nurse, you won't have much direct contact with her." Mark took a long sip of the coffee, then breathed out a satisfied sign, he always knew Arizona made the best coffee in the morning. "You have to aware of the nurses though, don't know what kind of story they'll talk about."

"Tell me about it." Arizona leaned her head against the back of the couch, in deep thought for a while then turned to face to Mark.

"I don't understand, you slept with half of the nurses, couple of doctors and countless of drug reps., how come you never had any episode?"

"Oh honey, you have a long way to learn." Mark gave her a wink and pet on her knee.

"Oh no no, I had enough drama, I don't think I am going to go after the nurse anymore, not going to learn anything from that."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I am not going to let myself involve to anyone for awhile, take myself off the market. Have to concentrate on my job anyway." She stood up and walked toward the kitchen to pour herself another cup of coffee. Mark's gaze followed her with an amaze expression.

"Don't tell me you are buying those celibate craps, regular sex could help you concentrate, you know. Sexual frustration won't do anyone any good."

"That's a guy's point of view, I can handle it."

"How? How do you _handle_ it?" Mark had the biggest naughty smile on his face, that earned a cushion slosh right in his face. "Owww… see? Sexual frustration!"

"Perv!" Arizona raised her fist about to punch Mark in his arm…

"Fine fine fine, I am not going to talk about this for now. I'm here to see if you have any plan today, I need help. Actually Callie needs help. I promised to go with her for furniture shopping, but Lexie called and said she have a half day off and we didn't spend much time together lately, so…"

"So you ditch your best friend for a chance of having sex with your girlfriend."

"Can you blame me?" Mark said all innocently, liked it was the most sensible matter, Arizona couldn't come up with an answer but laugh out loud. After a couple of seconds, Mark added "You know what? If in the future there has anything ever happen between you and Callie, and I have to choose between you two, I promise you I'll pick you to return this favor."

"No I don't think you'll pick me, Callie slept with you, I never and will never do that, so I won't be surprised that you'll choose her side if we have problem with each other."

"Hmm… never say never… " That earned him another punch on the arm.

"Fine, I go shopping with Callie, tell her I'll be there around noon."

* * *

Arizona arrived Horizon a little before 12, followed the stairs to go to the loft, surprise that it was opened.

"Hmmm…. Callie, are you there?"

"Ya, come on in."

She stepped in the apartment, found that the brunette was busy in the kitchen preparing some salad.

"Mark told me you are coming instead of him, I see that he found the way to get away with shopping with me, sorry that you have to take the place. So, I make us lunch before we head to shop. I hope you like salad."

"Oh you don't have to, I like shopping and I thank you'll find that shop with a woman is way better than go with a man, especial a Mark." Arizona answered while she sat down on a stool in front of the kitchen island, peeked at the vegetable mix she said "a lot of green, you thought we doctors use to eat extremely health?"

"Well I don't know a lot of doctors but both Mark and Addison eat crazy healthy, I think Mark only eats apples for lunch, right?"

"OK I admit, a lot of doctors pay extra attention to what they eat, but umm… I don't." Arizona blushed a little bit because this is kind of embarrassing to confess her bad eating habit.

"Oh really, like what?"

"I eat donuts, a lot. And I love pound cake, rich, buttery pound cake."

"Mmm…"

"What? I told you I don't really eat healthy."

"OK, this lunch we are going to eat this healthy green salad, I'll get you something unhealthy next time." Callie made a playful wink and continued. "Actually I knew how a pain in the ass Mark could be, so I am really glad you don't mind to go with me. It's your day off right? You don't mind to spend the day with me?"

"Don't worry, I don't really have a plan or something, I am totally free today."

"Great, let's eat before we started." Callie handed a plate to Arizona, and placed another plate next to her, then turned around to the refrigerator to get them something to drink. "Is soda OK? I don't really have time to run the grocery, otherwise I could run down to grab something from the pub. And sorry that as you know, I don't have many furniture yet, so we have to eat on the kitchen bar."

"It's fine, I am not difficult. Just relax, sit down and enjoy our lunch, this dressing is really amazing! How do you know to make food like this good?"

"Long story, the short version is I am gifted."

"Oh how modest! Then why bartender but not a chef? Not that you don't mix good drinks, but you can cook as well. Like this? Sure you'll be a successful chef in a great restaurant." Arizona couldn't help but took another big forkful of food, she really appreciated good food, and it didn't go unnoticeable by the maker.

"Well, being a chef I would have to stay behind closed door in the kitchen, being a bartender standing in an open bar, people could see my beauty."

"Oh my god, you are just so modest!"

The two fell in an easy atmosphere to talk and kid like a pair of old friend through the lunch, after Arizona insisted on helping with the dishes, they headed out to the furniture store.

* * *

"Come again? How many states you had been lived in over the years?" Callie looked at the blonde next to her wide-eyed.

"Oh don't be so dramatic, that was the life of any army family, either lived without a parent or moved in every 18 to 24 months." Arizona said nonchalantly, eyes roaming around the furniture store.

"That means you had to move again after barely settled in, the school, friends, the neighborhood."

"It wasn't a big deal for a child, especially I grew up with a brother, we had each other, and both our parents. Oh this dresser is pretty, what do you think?" Arizona looked at Callie.

"Too colorful, I don't want any flashy color in my bedroom. And it wasn't hard to say goodbye to your friends? For a child, friends were important." Callie walked away from the sky blue dresser, the other one followed her with a small pout.

"Not really, I knew all along that we won't stay long. I made some friends but no, no hard feeling when we parted. I had my brother."

"Had?"

"Oh oh oh, look at that, you should have this entertainment unit in your living room, look how beautiful it is!" Arizona exclaimed and ran toward a white entertainment unit with flowers decorated on the side, and multicolor glass windows.

"No no no you come back here, I won't have _that_ in my home. Where the hell are we anyway? You took me to a children furniture store? What's your problem? Take that pout off of your face, we are leaving."

"But you haven't seen the pink princess castle bed yet!" Arizona called after the Latina who was running out of the store.

* * *

"So, you had 3 different pubs in 3 different cities within 10 years, impressive." Arizona said while flopped onto a big red couch that Callie set eyes on once they stepped in the fifth furniture store.

"Not in the same time, and I had my reasons." The brunette sat next to her new friend, "I'll take this one."

"Are you sure? We spent like 2 hours in the 4 other stores and you hate every other couches, a minute in here you decided to buy this one?"

"What can I say, I'm a romantic, believe in love at first sight." Callie winked at Arizona and then gestured the staff to note down the order.

"Well, you do look like the impulsive kind of person." Arizona waited while Callie was giving the instruction to the clerk, once the brunette returned to her previous position, Arizona couldn't help but asked "So, to relocate your pub, another impulsive decision?"

"What do you mean?"

"As a surgeon, we tend to study every move we are going to make, or to cut before we actually cut it. I assume running a business should be the same, no? I mean you wouldn't like, woke up in the morning and decided that you didn't want to stay in New York then you just closed the pub and moved."

Callie's face slightly fell, she looked down to the floor for a couple of seconds, in the meantime, Arizona was mentally slapping her own big mouth.

"3 months ago, I woke up and asked myself what was I doing in New York, I wasn't happy in there anymore. The same day I called everyone of the staffs and told them that the pub was closed, I wrote everyone a check to cover their 3 months salaries, paid an extra month rent to the landlord, left everything to the attorney to handle, the next morning I was in LA. Yes it was an impulsive decision, but can you call me irresponsible …"

Arizona put a hand on Callie's forearm to stop her "I am sorry Callie, I didn't mean to interrogate you or judge you, I didn't. Stupid me just asked a stupid question, I am so sorry."

Callie closed her eyes, took a deep breath then looked at Arizona again with a small smile on her face, "No I should be the one to apologize, it had been quite a difficult year for me, years actually, turned me to an irritable bitch."

Arizona squeezed the hand that was still on Callie's forearm, and said "Everyone said I am overly perky, maybe we should hang out more to even out each other."

Callie couldn't help to turn her small smile to a full belly laugh, "Ya right, I have no doubt about that. Come on Perky, I still have to get a dining table." She stood up from the couch, held out a hand to the blond, and the other happily caught it.

"No problem, let's go Frowny."


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, I just borrowed the name of the characters for entertaining, no intention to violate any copyrights.

* * *

Chapter 5

"Hey Cal!"

"Well well well, Dr. Sloan!"

"What? Why do you Dr. Sloan me?"

"You stood me up yesterday."

"I sent an alternative! The second best other than me."

Callie placed a scotch in front of Mark. "Actually she was much more helpful than you."

"So? What was the problem?" Mark took a sip of his drink. "Blondie told me she had a great time yesterday, apparently you two managed to spend 6 hours in furniture shopping, I am impressive, and glad I wasn't there."

"It was her fault! Except the bright red couch I picked out in the beginning, she disliked every other thing I chose, then suggested something else totally out of my style. When I ignored her ideas, she got the store clerks to yap about harmonious, tempered, geomantic craps with her, Mark. She even got a couple of customers in one of the store ganged up on me to make me buy a rosewood bed frame and matching chest." Callie said with a huge smile on her face when she recalled the time in the stores.

"Did you buy it?"

"Of course I did, Mark. You were not there, that woman is terribly persistent."

"Tell me about it. Once she invited herself to help me shop for suit for a meeting, "A" meeting. I ended up bought outfits for the next 10 years meetings. And from what you sounded, seemd you're not complaining." Mark grinned to his best friend, happy to see she was happy.

"No, I am not. She is fun to hang out with." Callie's eyes twinkled just by mentioning the name of the blond, and it wasn't unobserved by the man in front of her, and he remembered the last time he saw the same expression on the Latina's face.

Before he could started to say something to Callie, he saw his friend looked pass his shoulder and a broad smile, turned away and saw Arizona just entered and walked toward the bar, with a defeated look.

"Hi Callie, hi Mark." The blond sat herself next to Mark with a weak smile on her face.

"How was your day? I thought your shift ended 3 hours ago." Mark asked.

"I should be off about 4 hours ago, dragged into an emergency surgery, a 6 years old slipped off the ladder while climbing up to his tree house." Arizona answered and she was about to order her drink, surprise that Callie already put a Manhattan in front of her. "Hey you remember my drink." Full force dimpled smile plastered on her face.

"I'm a bartender, kind of my job to remember the habit of the usual customers." Luckily, Callie's blush was safely hidden by the dim light in the environment.

"So I'm just an usual customer, I thought we are friends." Arizona gave the barkeep a playful pout, took a sip of her drink.

"Yes we are friend, but you still have to pay." Callie said matter-of-fact, but Mark interrupted. "I never pay."

"Mark! Why can't you just keep you mouth shut for once?"

"I am just telling the fact." He shrugged and finished his drink. "I'll have a refill."

"So he doesn't have to pay for anything but I, the person who spent a day to help you decorated your home, have to pay for drinks, now I know where I stand." Arizona faked an anger look, and pretended to leave. Callie grabbed her hand over the counter top to stop her.

"Fine, you don't have to pay. You don't drink that much as Cristina, I won't go bankrupt from you anyway."

They smiled to each other for a second, until Mark cleared his throat and held his empty glass in the air. "Well, I hate to disturb but I really want to have a refill, and the guy over there is about to go around the counter to pour himself a glass. Where is Joe anyway, haven't see him the whole night."

Callie let go of the blond's hand and pick up a bottle to serve Mark. "Joe's boyfriend is coming in town, he'll take the coming few days off to help him settle. OK, I better get back to work." Then she turned her heels to the other side of the bar with a prefect business smile.

Arizona stared at her until he heard Mark was talking "You looked tired, everything's alright?"

"Well, the boy I was operated on, broke both of his tibias, a wrist and an elbow…"

"Huh, ortho work."

"Exactly, Colleen was there, I was able to stop the abdominal bleeding pretty quickly, but still we were in the same room over 3 hours. Believe me, it felt like a life time." Arizona picked up her glass for a big gulp, looked at Mark with a bitter smile.

"That bad? She tried to stab you with a scalpel? Or clamped your eyeball with a forceps?" Mark couldn't hold his amused smirk, Arizona just roll her eyes.

"Nope, she just… ummm… flirted with Dr. Chang the whole time." This time it was the kid doctor who couldn't help to smirk, especially when she saw the shock look on her friend's face.

"Dr. Chang? That dinosaur? Who would flirt with that guy?"

They both fell in a fit of giggles "Apparently, she tried to make me jealous," Arizona said while she swept a tear from the corner of her eye "by flirting with someone who is old enough to be her grandfather, and has a penis" Then there went another fit of giggles.

"She should come to me, that could be more convincing." Mark spoke between his laugh, earned himself a punch on the arm.

"I just hope this is finished." Arizona finished her drink with another big gulp. "I could use a quiet evening, I'm beat."

"So, no hot date tonight? It's barely 9." Callie turned back just in time to catch Arizona's plan of the night. "Another one?"

"Nah, tough day at work, should better call it the night, have some wine at home, a bath and a comfy long sleep."

"That is the thing every bar owner would like to hear."

"Sorry. Hey are we still up for clothes shopping? We could go to the shopping mall that I talked about, I might need a hair cut when we went there, and there have the best pretzel in the neighborhood."

"Of course I'm up for it, can't wait to have you dress me up." Callie answered the blond with a grin..

"Super, how about this weekend?"

"Deal!"

"OK, I really should get going, good night to you two."

After Arizona left, Callie and Mark kept the little chit chat on and off between Callie's bartending duty, eventually the place started to die down and the barkeep could stay longer with her friend.

Mark was debating to himself, he knew it wasn't his business but he knew he had to say it, for his best friend's sake.

"Cal, are you… having a thing for blondie?"

"Wh… what? Mark? No! I am not! I don't!" Callie shrieked her answer, with her eyes as wide as they could go.

"Callie, I can read you like a book, remember? What did your father said? Something about you wear your heart on your sleeve?" Mark cocked his head slightly look Callie in her eyes "I am not judging you, I just want you to be careful."

"Wh… what… why… what do I have to be careful of?"

Mark told a moment to compose his answer, after all, both Callie and Arizona were his friends. "I want you to be careful, not to hurt her, or being hurt by her. According to your track record, you fell for someone hard and fast, then end up miserable. You packed up and flee to another state, twice. What's next? Another continent? I really like to have you around, so just, don't do anything stupid."

"I just… It feels good to be around her, you know? I know it sounds crazy but the couple of times we were together, I felt carefree and simply delightful. Generally I don't like perky, the high pitch gives me headache, but her laugh was like music in my ears. And you know I am a sucker for dimples … She remained me of …"

"Callie, it had been years…"

"I know. And I made a promise, I am going to live my life." They both stayed silent for a couple of minute, Callie took out a shot glass and got herself a tequila shot. "I don't really know her, but is it so wrong that I like her? I mean that's the beginning of every relationship, right? You don't know someone, then spend time together to get to know each other and then fall in love happily ever after, right?" Callie looked at Mark with a pleading eyes, he opened his mouth about to answer …

"I know I know, she has a girlfriend, or dating someone, I know, I saw them the other night. I really shouldn't get myself between them, they looked happy together." Callie was more talking to herself at this point, remembering seeing Arizona and Colleen in the pub the other night, the night of Colleen's birthday.

Mark bit his lower lip to ponder the response he should give to the brunette, because he knew it well that Arizona was not seeing anyone, should he clear it out? Finally he decided better to just brush it off.

"Callie, listen to me, Arizona is a good person, she is caring, and yes she is extremely perky, she could pick up anyone from the lowest ground with her perkiness, believe me I saw that multiple times. I am not surprise you'd feel good around her because she is contagious, I just don't want you mistaken that as some kind of affection. Her track record was not any better than yours, I am not going to say anything behind her back, you just… be wise and be careful, OK?"

"I'll try."

* * *

Arizona set her tray down on the table and then sat down next to Teddy, the usual sunshine Peds surgeon obviously had a little bit of cloud over her face. She looked up from her food and said to her friend, "my lunch looks so sad."

Teddy looked at her and looked down to her own tray "we got the same salad, mine looks … neutral…?" The blond just gave her an eye rolling. "Come on, tell me what's going on? You're being cranky for a couple of days already."

"No I am not, just tired." Arizona poked at her salad pointlessly.

"If you say so. I thought you said you were going shopping with the friend of Sloan on Saturday, normally that could relax you. Or you had too much fun that burnt you out?"

"No, she cancelled, said that she had some errands to run that couldn't get away from the pub."

"So you girls rescheduled the date?" Teddy asked before shoving another forkful of salad in her mouth.

"We didn't, she didn't sound like want to pick another date, actually she was kinda pull back, I don't know what is happening." Arizona said without looking up from her nearly smashed salad.

"What's up, ladies?" Mark chose this moment to join his co-workers, slid in the seat opposite to his blondie, found she wasn't in her upbeat self. "Arizona, something happened?"

"Everything's fine, Mark."

"Your friend stood her up, Mark." Teddy said with a smirk in her tone, since she didn't think this was the reason that the woman was upset.

"Teddy! It wasn't like that, she just had to cancel because she was busy. And stood me up was a strong word, we just talked about go shopping together, 2 friends spend some time to hang out, I don't even know we are friends or not, I barely know her and she doesn't know much about me. And she clearly is very busy in this moment since she just moved to here, and the new business is going to take up a lot of her time, she probably has to deal with the vendors and …"

"Robbins! Breathe!" Mark had to shake her shoulder to stop the rambling, according to the experience, she may go on and on for hours if no one stopped her.

Arizona pursed her lips a little and then took a deep breath. "I thought Callie wanted to befriend with me, but it seems it was my own wishful thinking."

"Ummm… what are you talking about?"

"We talked about spend the Saturday in the mall, she texted me the night before said that she couldn't get away from the pub, that was fine because she has a business to run after all. But since then she was kind of distant when I went to Horizon, I don't know how to say it but it was just like… she didn't want me there, she didn't talk to me much."

"Did you do something to offense her?" Teddy asked.

"Not that I could recall of."

"Did you… come on too strong to her? I mean, you are friendly, sometimes too friendly that may mislead people to the wrong direction …." Teddy said with an uncertainty on her face, hoped this won't annoy her friend more but this is the only reason she could think of for the moment.

"I don't know. Did you feel the same? When I came to you said that I wanted to be your friend, did you think I was hitting on you?"

"Well, I didn't know you were gay at that time, and I lived like a man in the desert with soldiers for 2 years, couldn't even remember what was it like to be hit on."

Arizona pondered for a while, then turned to the surprisingly quiet Mark "Was it the reason? She has a problem of being friend with a lesbian? Or she thinks I want a piece of her?"

"It really is not my place to say anything." Mark held his hands in the air. "Listen, I can ensure you that she doesn't have any problem of you being a lesbian, don't even think that. But about the rest, I don't know anything, I haven't seen her in the last couple of days, and I really don't think I should give any comment, just drop it." Mark took a bite on the apple and glanced to his pager "I have to go, just… don't over thinking. You can't force someone to be your friend, we're not in 5th grade for crying out load." With that, he said goodbye to the ladies and ran out of the cafeteria as fast as he could, not that he had someone needed to be saved in somewhere, but to try to stay away from his best friend before he said something more than he should.

Back in the cafeteria, Teddy was watching the restless blond closely, she really was just joked about Arizona got upset because of Callie, but seeing the way she kept stabbing the salad, something kicked in places.

"Arizona, are you having a crush on Callie?"

"What? First Mark said I forced someone to befriend with me, and now you said I am having a crush, seriously you guys think I'm twelve? I work in peds doesn't mean I think like a kid."

"But you do act like one."

"Fine, I like her, I want us to be friends, that doesn't mean I want something more, OK? I am not some kind of animal that want to jump every women crossed paths… anymore." She said it when the eyebrow of Teddy's almost raised to the top of her forehead, then threw a tomato toward the green-eyed surgeon. "I hate you."

Teddy giggled and bent down to pick up the tomato from the floor, "Whatever you say, Arizona. So what are you going to do? Are you going to woo her?"

"No Teddy, I am not going to woo anyone. I just thought we could be friend, because we both are good friend of Mark's. But if she thought otherwise, I am not going to urge her. As Mark said, we are not in 5th grade, there had no teacher in the playground made us to shake hands and shared a candy bar." Arizona stood up to dispose her tray, she really had no appetite, better to go get an on-call room for a little nap before the afternoon started.

Teddy followed suit, they walked down the hall side by side, and before entered the elevator, she held her friend's arm stopped her from stepped in the metal carrier, narrowed her eyes and cocked her head liked she smelled something, that made Arizona froze and tried to sniff the surround, but it was nothing abnormal.

"I know what we can do! Let go to the pub tonight and you can take the chance to talk to Callie!" Teddy exclaimed to Arizona's face.

"Teddy you scared me, I thought there was a bomb or gas leak or something!" Arizona relaxed a bit when they finally made it to the elevator. "No I am not going, not in the mood of drinking, or talking."

"Come on, this is so out of your character that you don't want to sort things right. Besides, I need a night out, a lot of drinks to take my mind away from my sad lonely nonexistent love life."

"How about a girls night in? We could pick up some Chinese and head to my place, oh oh oh we could watch the movie that Lexie talked about the other day."

"Did I mention my sad lonely nonexistent love life? I need to see people and I need to see people who are not in their scrubs, or patient gowns."

"Fine, but you are buying." Arizona rolled her eyes and released a dramatic sigh.

Teddy returned with a satisfied grin and then stepped out of the elevator when it arrived in her floor "Yay, girls night out!"


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, I just borrowed the name of the characters for entertaining, no intention to violate any copyrights.

A/N: Once again, thank you very much for reading my fic, and I am grateful that you guys like it even though their romance is building in a slow progress. The backstory of this Callie is slowly revealed in this and the next chapter, I am kind of nervous about this, hope you would like it.

P.S./ I thought I won't care about the reviews, but I was wrong, it feels great ;-)

* * *

Chapter 6

Callie was in a shitty mood for days, everyone in the pub knew it but didn't know why, except Joe, her co-bartender who worked with her alongside for over 5 years. The two spent long hours together worked side by side, it wasn't hard to build up a bond between them, especially after all those late night heavy drinking heart-to-heart talks.

When Callie decided to close down the pub in New York, she made an incredibly tempting offer to Joe, that she would transfer the business to her loyal ex-employee with only half of the market value. But Joe turned her down, because Callie was going to start over again in Seattle, he was going to follow her to the world. The big guy had a soft spot for the Latina.

Today when he went back to work, he found the perkiest waitress in the house, April was weeping in the corner of the storage room, he immediately knelt down and put a comforting hand on her shoulder "What's happening honey, something's wrong?"

"I… I… arrived, Cal.. Cal… Callie said she… she... wanted... coffee.."

"Breathe honey, breathe or we won't go anywhere, take a deep breath and then talk." Joe was coaching April to breathe like she was going in labor. After a couple of deep breaths, her breath sounded more even and the tears stopped trickling down, she continued.

"Callie said she wanted some coffee but someone was cleaning the machine, so I offered to go over to the coffee shop to pick up something for her, and she said she wanted a scone. When I returned she was angry that I got her a small coffee instead of a big one, and she threw the scone in the trash because I got a blueberries one instead pumpkin… And she started to talk to me in Spanish... " The water work was about to start again when April revived the boss's outburst of anger.

Joe scowled his disbelief at Callie's behavior, because Callie wasn't the kind of boss who liked to voice her appreciations to her employees superficially, but she also wasn't the kind of boss who would throw a tantrum to her helpers. They need to talk, and soon

After consoled April and told her to fresh up a bit before opened the door, he found his way to go up to Callie's apartment.

Obviously Callie ran back home in a raging mind, the door wasn't closed. Joe knocked on the door gently then pushed it open "It's very dangerous to leave the door opened, even though you think it's safe in here. I could be a burglar, you know."

Callie reposed on her red couch with her eyes closed, glimpsed at Joe for a split second, then shut them again.

"Callie…"

"I am fine, just tired and headache, I am going to take a nap for a while, I'll come down before happy hour started."

"This is not going to work Callie." He moved further into the apartment "I don't mean me handling the bar, I mean you have to deal with your emotion."

"I am fine, I'll go to apologize to April later, just leave me alone for the moment, OK?" Callie was getting annoyed, she just wanted to have a moment to herself.

"Not just April, everyone knew something was off. You used to make jokes with the customers, you never yell at waitress but you scolded at Reed the other day just because she broke a tumbler, and you almost threw someone out because he quipped you couldn't mix a mean screwdriver."

"Hey, that was a serious accusation to a bartender, he said his great grandma could make a better screwdriver. He was lucky you were there to stop me." Callie shot up from her seat, still heated from the memory of that jerk.

"My point is, you are not in your good shape honey." Joe sat down on the coffee table right in front of Callie, landed his giant hand on her knee. I don't think it will get any better if you still refuse to face your true feeling toward Arizona."

Callie just looked down on her knee staring at Joe's hand, so the big man continued "Of course I knew you like her, you were happy when she was around, I haven't see you like this since… you knew who. I know you are scared, but you can't be too afraid to love, my dear. If you don't try, you'll never know you'd get hurt, or you'll gain the love of your life."

"But Mark was right, I just escaped from a place, I shouldn't jump to another relationship so fast."

"You are thinking too much, wasn't you said that life is short, talk fast?"

"No, that was Lorelei Gilmore." Callie gave a hearty laughs, he always had a way to lighten the mood.

"Whatever. Listen, you got burnt, badly, boo hoo! You can't stop live your life. You made bad decision, so terrible that I couldn't even believe someone smart like you could do, but you learned from it, right? Just let it run its course, maybe this will lead to a love affair, maybe this will lead to a BFF situation, who knows? If it goes south and you want to pack and going again, I have your back 100%."

"Joe…"

"I'll go down to get the pub open, you just take your time, Wednesday won't be too busy so you can take a break, we will be fine."

Leaned over to kiss the Latina on the cheek, Joe left her alone in the apartment.

* * *

Teddy and Arizona arrived in Horizon side by side, quickly gazed out to the bar, they only saw the big guy over there serving beverages. Arizona was slighted relaxed that she didn't have to enter the place under the beautiful Latina's sight, she thought she couldn't handle another time without the radiant smile to welcome her.

Teddy led Arizona toward the seating area where some of their colleagues were already there, Alex was talking to Cristina and Meredith, and Derek was saying something to a defeated looking Lexie, and he looked very serious.

"What is happening about those two?" Teddy whispered to Cristina and gestured her head indicated that she was asking about the in-laws.

"She criticized a decision made by the neuro god during a surgery, in front of everybody." Cristina replied indifferently, then returned to the conversation between the other friends.

Sensing the tension on that side of the table, the new comers decided to stay out of it, turned their focus on the other companions.

"So Yang, you really are not going back to Hunt then?" Alex asked while he popped another peanut in his mouth.

"It's not your business."

"Come on, you are living above a pub together with the owner of this place, I'm sure she keeps boozes everywhere, or you can sneak down here to immerse your liver into tequila anytime you want. And as you said she stuffs the cabinets and the fridge, she cleans, she even brought a freaking big flat screen TV putting in the living room. And don't forget you live across the street from the hospital now, you could get in there faster than anyone of us. You are like living in a paradise, who would want to leave?"

"Alex…" Meredith tried to stop him.

"The flat screen had delivered?" Arizona burst out asking, made everyone looked at her. "I… I were just surprised, the store said they were unable to deliver until next week."

"I don't know how, but it was upstairs in the living room now." Cristina answered nonchalantly, 'cos she really didn't care.

"I'm telling you, if you go back to Hunt, I call dibs on the room upstairs, I can't stay in Meredith's forever anyway. Hey hey, Callie has three rooms right? Maybe she won't mind to rent me one of them. A hot woman likes her need a dude likes me to stick around to protect her." Alex went on and on with his pompous speech, that earned an eye rolling from Cristina, and smirks from both Arizona and Teddy.

"First of all, I don't know if I would ever go back to the fire house. Secondly, you protect Callie? Did you see her forearms? She could easily lift a case of beer and throw it across the room, she could be the one protect you. And you can't call dibs to the room because it is depends on Callie, not your dibs."

"But Cristina, there had nothing could not be solved, it's a pity to throw a marriage away." Teddy couldn't help but to interrupt the young doctors, after all, she was Owen Hunt's best friend for years.

"I don't know Teddy, and I don't want to talk about this any more, I need drinks." Then the Asian stood up and walked toward the bar.

"I'll go to help her." Arizona followed.

On their way to the bar, Arizona tried to have some small talks with the sad woman "So, how are you holding up?"

"Peachy. Hey Joe, we want another round." She looked around the pub and continued "Where is Cal? She's not working tonight?"

"She wasn't feeling very well, having a rest upstairs, I don't know if she's coming down tonight." Joe answered while pouring the tequila into the shot glasses.

"What is wrong with her? She'd been moping around for days, even worse than me." Cristina grumbled under her breath, but both Joe and Arizona could hear her.

"She will be fine." Joe answered and placed the beer in front of the 2 women. Cristina grabbed the tray of tequila and turned her heels back to the table, and Arizona was about to take the beer, Joe stopped her and said "Ah Arizona, would you mind to go upstairs to check up on Callie? She was having headache hours ago, I don't know how she is doing now, what's better than to have a doctor to check if she's still alive?"

"I don't know, Joe…."

"Just go up to see if her headache's getting worse, oh and make sure she eats something, she tends to skip dinner when she isn't feeling well."

"I really don't think I should go up…"

"Listen, I can't leave and we both know that we couldn't count on Cristina to take care of Callie could we? Just go, I'll have April brings the bottles to the table. I know Callie stocked foods in the apartment, but if she needs something else, just call and I'll get it for her."

Arizona was about to protest again but man, who would know those small eyes could stare. Besides, deep down she would like to see if Callie was alright. That was why, she found herself outside of Callie and Cristina's loft, knocking on the door genteelly.

Moments later the door opened and there was the sleepily looking Latina, who looked stunned to see the blonde stood outside her home.

"What are you doing here?"

"Ummm… Joe said you were not feeling well and sent me up to check up on you. I… If… It seems you are resting, I should better get going." Arizona backed herself to leave, but Callie grabbed her wrist to stop her movement.

"I am sorry of being rude, I just got up from the nap, a little fussy. Do you want to come in?" Callie loosed the grip and stepped aside, made room for the visitor to pass.

Arizona slowly entered the apartment, looked around in the living room and found most of the purchases they made already delivered, indeed included the flat screen TV.

"I saw most of the things arrived, why didn't you call me? I promised to help arranging them in placed." She turned around talked to Callie who was in the kitchen now.

"I was kind of preoccupied lately, and didn't want to engage too much of your free time. Do you want something to drink?"

"Water would be fine." Arizona walked to the kitchen to take the glass of water that offered by the host. "Maybe you should sit down, how are you feeling? Headache?"

"Much better now, thanks. Didn't sleep well lately, felt better after a nap." She walked toward the couch, and Arizona followed suit.

"Do you want something to eat? Joe is worried that you don't feed yourself." Arizona tried to look Callie in the eyes, but the other just stared straight in afar.

"I'm fine, I'm not hungry." Then the both of them just sat in the couch fell in a very uncomfortable silent.

After felt like eternity, Arizona couldn't take it anymore. "Did I do something… to offense you?"

"Excuse me?" Callie snapped out of her haze.

"Did I do something to offense you? We had good time during the couple of times we were together, we were fine when we went shopping for the furniture last week. And sudden you pulled away, you cancelled on me, that was fine because I knew you could be busy or something, but when I went to the pub you literally avoided me, tried to brush me away like I was some sort of stalker. And now I am here visiting my sick friend, you made me feel like I am totally unwelcomed. Maybe I am. Just tell me what is the problem? I really thought we could be friend."

"Arizona…"

"No, seriously, just tell me what did I do wrong, it is OK if you don't want to befriend with me, I have people lining up to be my friend, I am a pleasant, genuine, desirable, awesome friend. It's your lost but I just need to know why."

"It's not you, it's me, OK?"

"What are you talking about? Are you breaking up with me? This is the most cheesy breakup line in the history." Arizona couldn't help but laughed at what the Latina just said, that made the other woman laughed along.

"Just listen to me before you started to ramble again OK?" She continued when the blond nodded. "I like you."

"I like you too."

"No, Arizona, I _like you_ like you. Like I want to hold your hand, take you in my arms, kiss your lips, damn it I want to kiss all over your body, I want to throw you in my bed and make you writhe underneath me, that kind of like you."

Shock couldn't be enough to describe the blonde's reaction "Didn't you marry to a man? You slept with Mark…. You like men… What? Are you having a bi-curious?"

"What? No! You didn't know?" Callie's voice raised an octave in surprise.

"Know what?"

"I am a bi, but no longer curious like 15 years already. Didn't Mark tell you that?"

"Ha, he didn't." This time it was Arizona screamed.

"Consider he told me you're a gold star during the first time we met, I am surprised he didn't tell you I play for both teams."

"You'd think?"

After another moment of silent, Arizona shifted to the coffee table to sit right in front of Callie "Why didn't you tell me, talk to me, instead of avoiding me?"

"Because it is complicated." Callie let out a frustrated sigh, concentrated on the invisible thread in the hem of her shirt instead of looking at the blue eyes in front of her.

"OK let's be honest, I like you too. I like that we are comfortable together, I like that we are happy, I am happy when I am around you. And now I am happy that I am not heading to a cul-de-sac."

Still avoiding eye contact, Callie whispered "But you have a girlfriend, I don't want to get between the two of you."

"Who said I have a girlfriend?" Arizona frowned.

"I saw you two together, you were with her on her birthday, and and and… one of the night you rushed to home because she was waiting for you."

"Colleen… She was not my girlfriend." She sighed. "I need a drink, do you have any wine in here?" Callie stood up and walked toward the kitchen "white?" "Great." Then she took out a bottle and poured two glasses for them, she also needed it. All the while, Arizona kept explaining.

"I wasn't in a relationship with her, we were purely… friends with benefit, at least I thought. She wanted more but I didn't, that's why that night I had to rush out to break it with her." She took the offered wine and took a gulp of it. "Wait a minute, the king of gossip didn't tell you this? He knew the whole chaos because he was my consultant, and he was proud of it. He even shared this story with the handy man of the building when the guy came over to fix his toilet."

"He didn't! He told me Miranda Bailey was doing a male nurse in one of the room in the hospital, he told me Teddy Altman went on those online dating things and ended terribly every single time, and he filled me in with the situation of Cristina and her husband… But he didn't tell me anything about you and your girlfriend."

"I do not have a girlfriend."

"Whatever. When I talked to him, he didn't correct me…" They looked each other in the eyes, both a bit confused.

"Something's up in his sleeve..." Arizona said.

"He's trying to protect us, from each other." Recognition started to kick in in the mind of the Latina's.

"What do you mean?"

"I told you, it's complicated."

"You know, you can't just use those words every time when you don't want to explain something." Arizona raised her eyebrow.

"Well, we can start with… I am still married."


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, I just borrowed the name of the characters for entertaining, no intention to violate any copyrights.

A/N: Chapter 7 is my favorite, the plot and the title weren't like this before this chapter. One of the typical blue evening, I was looping _Rachael Yamagata's Horizon_ over and over and over again... Then I finished this.

I really hope you guy like this ;-)

* * *

Chapter 7

"Excuse me? You are still married?"

"Yes, I am still married to one George O'Malley." Callie nodded her head and sipped her glass of wine.

Arizona looked at the woman in front of her in disbelief, so many questions in her head but didn't know where to start. Suddenly, there was a knock on the front door, and then it opened from the outside.

"Callie, Yang told me you didn't feel well, I came to see… Oh, hey Arizona, you're here." It was Mark who came through the door.

"Hi Mark." Both women said in unison, they exchanged a sight then it was Arizona started to talk.

"Joe sent me up to make sure Callie's still alive, apparently she is." Then she stood up from the coffee table and walked to the kitchen to refill her glass.

"I am feeling alright, Mark, thanks." Callie looked at Mark and bit her lips for a second. "Can I ask you something? Since you are here."

"Ya sure." He sat down on the other couch and put his feet up on the coffee table.

Callie looked over to the kitchen locked eyes with the blonde, then she turned to Mark and asked with narrowed eyes. "Why didn't you tell Arizona I like girls?"

Color drained from the guy's face and his smile had frozen. "What? I umm… I didn't know that was my thing to tell, and you said you hate the label, you said people won't make it a conversation topic about liking the opposite gender then why do you have to tell people you like the both?"

"That is bullshit Mark, you told me Arizona is gay the first time we met, and you told me Derek's wife screwed random guys in daily basis before she and Derek were together. You didn't have filter in your mouth, why now? Why didn't you correct me when I talked about Arizona and the woman I thought was her girlfriend?" The Latina was getting angry by Mark's explanation, exhaustion was getting the best of her as well.

"Does it matter? So I left out a little details, that is just … technicality."

"But why? Mark? Just… why?" Arizona came back to the living room with her glass in one hand and the bottle in the other to fill up Callie's glass. "We are not mad or something, just wonder because this is so not you, to withhold gossip like this."

"Oh I am mad, I knew what he is up to." Callie leaned back to the coach with her arms crossed her chest, gazed over Mark angrily.

"Callie… I just don't want to see you get hurt, I am trying to protect you."

"From Arizona? We haven't even started anything!"

"Wow wow wow, excuse me?" Arizona stopped while she was half way sat next to Callie.

"Oh my god, I can't believe I put myself into this." Mark stood up to pace in the living room, he ran his hands through the hair to gather the thought.

"OK, listen, I love you both, very much. I know how lousy you two are when it comes to relationship, and I could see the goo-goo eyes you gave to each other, I got panic. Arizona you don't know how to maintain a relationship, you bailed when someone got clingy. And you Callie… You didn't just bail, you fled, you actually fled, or you did stupid things like married to some guy, you are way over his league Callie." Mark stopped pacing and now was standing right in front of the two women, one looked at him completely dumbfounded, the other just closed her eyes with head against the back of the couch.

"I don't want to see you two hurt each other, so I kept a little information under the table to buy us sometime, now I am the bad guy? Come on."

Finally Callie opened her eyes and stood up to look the man in the eyes "I don't need you to protect me, I don't need you to interfere with my life. If I needed that, I would call my parents!"

"No? No? How many times did I pick you up from the bathroom floor? How many times did I knock on your door to make sure you didn't end yourself? I slept in your living room for weeks after Malena left you… "

"Don't say her name! You do not say her name!" Callie was basically screaming to Mark, that made Arizona nearly jumped from the couch.

"I am sorry Callie, but the way you looked at Arizona, it was the same way you looked at Mal…" Mark tried to walk around the coffee table to hug his friend, but the teary Latina held up her hand to stop the man.

"You have to leave, now!"

"Callie…"

"Now! Before I physically remove you from my home!" A big drop of tear streamed down the brown eye, Arizona shot up from the couch, ran to push Mark toward the front door. "You need to go, will talk to you later."

"But…"

"Seriously Mark, I don't think she would listen to you now, you should go before she killed you, from what I see in here, she really would kill you." Arizona whispered to Mark while she opened the door.

"Ok ok, I'll go now, call me later?"

"Just go." Then she just shut the door.

Turned around from the front door, she saw Callie was sitting on the couch sobbing with hands on her face. Slowly walked toward the weeping woman, Arizona didn't know what she should say, so she just sat next to Callie and rubbed around her back.

Eventually, the sob stopped and the breath became even, Callie stood up from the spot avoided the gaze from the blonde next to her. "I go fresh up a little bit." Then she went to the bathroom without looking back.

Arizona went to the kitchen to get herself a bottle of water, and tried to gather her thought. Knowing her crush liked her back was great, but Mark was right, she didn't have a good track record, was she ready for something serious? More importantly, Callie seemed kind of mess up too.

The door of the bathroom opened, Callie walked out with puffy-eyed but at least the tear stains were clear. She sat down on the previous spot of the couch, released a sigh and asked Arizona to bring her a bottle of water as well.

The blond handed over the bottle, Callie patted on the couch and then Arizona sat next to her. Callie stared afar and started to talk.

"I am sorry about tonight, didn't meant to get so …dramatic." Arizona put a hand on top of Callie's hand on the couch between them. "I was saying… Yes, I am still married."

"Callie you don't have to …" Arizona tried to stop this conversation because maybe it was too much for a night, but Callie interrupted her.

"No, I want to. I don't want you to hear this from someone else, not from Mark." Turned her hand underneath Arizona's, they were palm to palm now. Gave a firm squeeze and Callie started to talk again.

"I met Malena the second year I moved to New York, we were madly in love, I was in heaven for three years when we were together, I was the happiest woman on earth and Mark was there teased me every time when he saw us together." Tears started to gather in brown eyes and she pursed the lips to stop the wail. She didn't glimpse at Arizona for once but kept staring the space ahead, liked she was watching the scene unfolded in front of her.

"We didn't talk about getting married or kids because we were living in the moment, and I didn't even think that one day we won't love each other anymore. That morning, more precisely, 4am when I arrived home from work, I opened the door and found the love of my life was sitting on the couch waiting for me. But she didn't look at me when I stepped in the apartment. I looked around, something was off, something missing, literally missing, not in there anymore. Things that you saw at home everyday but you couldn't recall what were in there, you just knew they weren't there." Callie took her hand back from Arizona's for opening the bottle of water, took a sip and then used both hands to grasp the bottle liked it may slipped away anytime.

"I sat down next to her on the couch, took her hands in mine," Callie looked down to her own hands, "I asked her if everything was OK. She told me…." Tears finally flew down from brown eyes, but she had no attempt to wipe to off. "She told me… she didn't love me anymore, I suffocated her, she had to leave me and she already moved her stuffs out from the apartment."

Arizona gasped, she tried to move a hand to cover her mouth to hide it but it was too late. The weeping woman gazed over her for the first time since they sat down together on the coach, and said "yep, that was my reaction."

"I begged her, I begged her to give me a chance to redeem what I did wrong, I promised her everything I could, I hugged her so tight to try to keep her from leaving me… But nothing worked, she left me sitting on the floor, bawled till my mind went numb."

"I tried to call her, I went to her office, I went after our friends, her friends, but she just disappeared like a puff of air, nobody got a hold of her. I was devastated, I couldn't function without her. Mark was so worried that he slept on my coach for 3 weeks, finally he dragged Addison back from LA to kick my ass." She sneered to herself, Arizona took this time to intrude the memory lane by holding Callie's hand with both hands.

"I am so sorry that you had your heart broken so badly, I don't know you well but I could say you didn't deserve this."

"I… I knew I had to gather myself because my friends were worried, Addison just started to work in the practice but she took 2 weeks off to stay with me. Mark delayed his departure to Seattle for a month because he didn't dare to leave me. Joe's boyfriend almost broke up with him since he put all the energy in the pub while I was dead to the world. So, I got back up." Arizona gave her hand another squeeze as for appreciated.

"After Mark left, George and I grew closer and closer. He was always around even when Malena and I were together, everyone knew he liked me but I was too in love with Mal to notice him. Anyway, I was lonely, he was there, so we shacked it up. I didn't even care at that time, I just wanted to have someone to help me forgetting the pain in my heart."

"That was why you married him, that was what Mark talked about?" Arizona asked.

"Not even closed." Callie sneered again. "Mark didn't even know what I am going to tell you now." She took a deep breath to continue.

"Four months after Malena left, I received a call from her sister. She told me… Malena went back to Palm Beach to stay with their parents, she was there to linger the very last moment of her life. My Malena... was diagnosed with end stage pancreas cancer, she broke up with me to spare me from seeing her die…" The poor woman broke down to another bawl again, tears flew down uncontrollable, Arizona released the hand and then tugged the crying woman in her embrace, Callie's head was on her shoulder and both hands grasp the back of Arizona's shirt as for a life vest.

"She told everyone not to let me know anything about her illness, she assumed that it could minimum my pain if she just disappeared from my world. But her sister loved her so much, couldn't stand the thought that 2 people who loved each other so much that didn't get the chance to say the final goodbye…" Arizona's chest was soaked with tears, she just ignored that but concentrated on rubbing the back of Callie's to offer some comfort.

"I flew over there as soon as I put down the phone, by the time I arrived there, Malena was dying, her dad said she was drifting in and out of her consciousness." The sob had die down, Callie had her eyes closed and now she was whispering. "I held her hand, I stroked her face liked I did the thousand times, I murmured her name over and over again… Finally she stirred, she couldn't open her beauty eyes but she called my name, she called her Calliope… I lay down on the bed to hold her the last time, she opened her eyes to look at mine, smiled… I told her I'd always love her, I would never stop loving her… Then she was gone."

Arizona didn't say anything, she tightened the embrace and rested her cheek on top of Callie's head, tears flew down silently, this was a heartbroken story and she couldn't imagine the pain this woman suffered from.

"So Mark didn't know Malena broke up with you because she was dying?" Arizona asked quietly.

"No, I didn't tell him I flew to Palm Beach because he would stop me from going. And I was too broken after Malena died. After the funeral I stayed there, totally shut down for weeks. George tracked me down and stayed with me, took care of me after saw me poured gallons of tequila down my throat." Callie finally sat up to grab a tissue to clean up her face.

"One of the morning after picked me up from the cold toilet floor, he told me he loved me so much that it hurt to see me destroy my life liked that, he promised me that he would make me the happiest person again if I give him the chance. I was in the worst case of hangover, and heartache, it was a surprise because I thought my heart died with Malena, but it still hurt. Anyway, I didn't care of anything anymore at that moment. The next thing I knew, I was standing in the Elvis chapel married to George by a guy dressed up like a priest."

Callie started laughing when she saw the horror look on Arizona's face. "I am sure Mark had the same face when I called him, too bad that I only got to tell him over the phone."

"You were joking, right?"

"Nope, I am Mrs. Callie O'Malley, married by a priest from Elvis chapel."

"That… was terrible. He took advantage of your vulnerability!"

"Well, I let him." Callie shrugged, stood up to walk to the kitchen "The wine is getting warm, I get you another one?"

"Yes that will be great. So Callie, what had happened afterward?"

"Let's see, everyone was angry with me for making such an irrational decision of my life, and I was angry with everyone for not being happy for me getting married. I think George was the only one who was delighted." Callie handed a glass of cold wine to Arizona and sat back next to her.

"Well, I think that was the right reaction, I mean angry with you because marrying someone should be a serious matter, it is a sacred commitment to …" She gazed over to Callie and saw the Latina was staring at her. "And you knew that."

"Of course I understand the sanctity of a marriage, I was just too sorrowful to care. I was so lost."

"I am sorry."

"George and I stayed together for 3 months as a married couple, we lived together but I was barely there, I lived like a zombie between the pub and home. Mark flew over one weekend to try to knock some sense into me, but I shut him out. However, as I told you once, I woke up in a morning and decided I couldn't live like that anymore, so I packed up and left."

"How did George react?"

"You'd think I'm a terrible person." Callie sighed and scrubbed her face with both hands. "I called him and said I wasn't going to work on that night, we need to talk when he came home. The poor man came back with a bag full of Chinese take outs, and 2 movies in hands. He thought his wife was staying in for a cozy evening with him, instead, I told him the whole thing was a mistake and I was going to divorce him, or get an annulment if he agreed."

Arizona didn't say anything but nodded in her agreement, so Callie continued. "He didn't like the idea. Anyway, I didn't stay to argue, just took the red eye to LA to stay with Addison for a month, left the attorney to take care of the everything. The last I hear from the lawyer, George refused to sign the divorce paper."

"What are you going to do then?"

"I don't know. I just felt like everything in my life is always a disaster." Callie threw her head back to the coach. "I don't want to move or breathe."

"Hey hey hey, everything will be fine, OK?" Arizona grabbed the Latina's hand and kneaded it with her both hands.

"How?" Callie huffed.

"I don't know, yet. But we'll see, just one a step at a time." Arizona sat closer and then wrapped her arm around the other woman. "One step at a time."

Callie put her head on the blonde's shoulder, they just sat there without saying anything.

After a while, a tipsy Cristina passed through the door. "Oh hey, you two are in here. Lexie said something about Mark was upset and ran home after came up to here, something had happened?"

The two looked at each other, Arizona talked after slightly squeezed Callie's hand "Don't worry, I'll talk to him, you just relax, OK? I should get going, talk to you later? "

Callie let go of Arizona's hand and then the blond stood up to leave.

"Arizona…"

"Yes?"

"Thank you… for listening."

"Always."


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, I just borrowed the name of the characters for entertaining, no intention to violate any copyrights.

A/N: First of all, sorry that it took such a long time to update. I took some advices to try to get a beta reader to amend my poor work, I touched couple of nice people and was waiting for them to come back to me. Life is hectic, understandably, so I was waiting patiently. However, it hit me today, I am going on a business trip tomorrow, that involve 5 flights in 2 weeks, terrible thing could happened (touch wood), I don't wanna stuck in the woods for days (touch wood) and thought about _holy crap, I had one more unfinished matter_. So, here is chapter 8, all mistakes are on me, if you found it violated your language, I am deeply, deeply, deeply sorry.  
And, if any one of you like my story and willing to help me beta it, please, really, please help me. I have another 7 chapters had finished, and I have another story with 9 chapters finished but not dare to put it out there yet. If you have time and don't mind to edit my shitty writing, please PM me, thanks ;-)

* * *

Chapter 8

"Robbins!" The plastic surgeon burst in the lounge.

Arizona nearly jumped a feet high, coffee spilt all over the floor of the lounge. "Mark! You have to clean it up!"

"Why are you so jumpy?" Mark went over the cabinet to grab some paper towel.

"Didn't sleep much last night."

"How was she?" Mark tried to act it cool, but concern all over his voice. "You stayed with her?"

"No, I went home. Wait a minute, why should I tell you? After you manipulated us liked that?" Arizona flopped down on the couch with her half full cup of coffee, didn't even look at Mark.

"Oh come on, I did that to …"

"To protect us, I knew, you said it." The PEDS surgeon rolled her eyes to show the annoyance, Mark stopped his cleaning task, stood up with hands on his hips to stare at the blonde. "So, you knew I did it for a reason. You two are like the most messed up women I know, I got panic only to picture about you two get together."

"Mark, I knew you did it out of good intention, but still, it pissed us off. And please, stop picturing us together, that's… pervey."

"Wow, what did you do this time Dr. Sloan?" Miranda Bailey pushed open the door in time to catch the last sentence from Arizona, and her eyes shifted to the coffee stain on the floor, and to Mark who had the paper towel in his hand. "Dr. Sloan, I hope you are planning to clean up the floor before someone slipped on this."

Mark mumbled under his breath, bended over to soak the coffee by the paper towel after received another Bailey glance. The short woman went over to the couch to sit next to Arizona asked question with her eyes, the other woman answered with a not so whisper voice. "He stuck his nose in the wrong butts."

Mark left his head tried to say something, but decided better to keep it to himself, this was not the moment to add fuel to the fire.

"I don't need to know your dirty laundries, just keep it clean at work." The blonde was about to protest, Miranda cut her off. "I don't care. I need you to clear your schedule this afternoon, I have a liver transplant need you to scrub in with, we got a liver for the kid in 314, Karev is on the way to harvest it."

"OK, then I better go do the rounds now." Arizona stood up to walk toward the door, but Mark stopped her with pleading eyes. "Hey wait, we need to talk."

"Not now Mark, I'll come over to your place tonight, OK?" She patted on Mark's shoulder then left the lounge.

"Man, I don't want to know what had happened between the two of you, whatever it is, leave it at home." Miranda gazed at Mark when she exited the room.

* * *

"Callie, what are you doing?" Cristina stepped out of her bedroom with sleepily eyes, still in her PJ.

"Cooking." The apartment owner didn't even look at the one who asked the question, she was stirring a full pot absentmindedly. And foods had spread around the kitchen corner.

"Are you expecting company? There are a hell lot of foods." The Asian woman asked apathetically, picked up a piece of baby carrot to put in her mouth before settled on the stool next to the breakfast bar.

"Nope, just feel like cooking." Callie just leaned lazily on the counter, hand kept stirring the pot.

The two stared at the swirl in the pot, none of them started to talk but fell in their own mind.

"How long did you married?" Suddenly, Callie asked, eyes still on the pot.

"We were on and off about a year, got married a year and a half ago. You?" Cristina answered with a hand on her chin, both didn't attempt to lift their eyes from the stirring motion.

"I really don't know, together for… 2 months…? Got married for 3 months. Separated for 3 months."

"Bold."

"Come again?" The Latina finally looked at the woman in front of her.

"I said you were bold, married some guy in such a short time."

"Stupid should be the word." Callie huffed.

"Ditto."

Callie finally turned off the stove, leaned back against the fridge to look at her roommate. "You love your man, don't you? Why would that be stupid?"

"I love him, but sometimes love just isn't enough. We have different goals, and the longer we run, the more we find out that we can't just compromise with everything. It was like stuffed your face with greasy cheese burgers for years and then accumulated cholesterol in your vein, a heart attack was just the matter of time." The woman said in a dull tone, didn't shift her pose, didn't divert her attention from the steaming pot.

"I'm just sick of everyone keep asking me how am I doing? What am I going to do? I don't know. I am a hardcore cardiothoracic surgeon, I'd cut open someone's chest to hold a beating heart without a blink, in a split second I know what kind of procedure I should preform to save a life. But I don't know how to save a frigging marriage, or do I even want to save this frigging marriage. Every time when I try to sort out my mind, I could only picture him and the other woman… so annoying."

Callie stared at her roommate with a deadpan expression.

"It takes time. It takes time to heal a broken heart. It hurt a lot in the beginning, slowly the pain would subside, little by little you won't even remember what were you sorrow over about. You could pick up the pieces and mend them back together, or up and leaving, move on with your life. Either way, you need to give it time to heal."

"This was what you did? Up and leaving? That's why you are here now?"

"Kind of." Callie pushed herself away from the fridge, clapped her hands and said. "OK, I think we had enough mush for the day. Are you hungry?"

"I can eat." Cristina sat straight from the stool, extended her arm to reach for a plate, but her motion stopped half way and then she looked at Callie. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yes?"

"Why did you take me in? We barely know each other."

"I don't know, you seem nice."

Cristina gawked at Callie liked she suddenly grew 2 heads. "Nobody ever think I'm nice, you need to have your brain checkup, I can call Shepherd for you."

"Well, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." Callie shrugged her shoulders and handed over a full plate.

"You are far more damaged than I thought." The Asian said.

"Don't I know it." The Latina sat next on the other bar stool, this time she was the one had a hand on her cheek gazed ahead.

"What had happened late night? Want to talk about it?" Cristina asked with a mouthful of food, the host glimpsed at her with a frown and then shook her head. "No I'm good, just had a meltdown."

"Well, having roller skate girl here was a good choice, no one could cheer up people like she did, it was painful sometimes to see someone so upbeat."

"Roller skate girl?" Callie turned her head to the Asian with her eyebrow raised up.

"Yep, she wore those ridiculous shoes with wheels underneath, you know, like a roller skate, in the hospital. I don't understand why the chef didn't ban her from skating down the hallways."

"Oh yes, the Heelys." Callie chuckled the first time since last night. "She told me that."

"Ridiculous, right?"

Callie didn't answer but chuckled, she turned her head faced forward again. After a while, she stood up and started to pack foods in some containers. Cristina looked at her with curiosity.

"What? You won't finish them all anyway." After putting the boxes in a tote bag, Callie headed out from the front door.

* * *

Arizona had Derek Shepherd for a consult, the poor 3 years girl was having seizure but they still couldn't figure out why, the 2 doctors sat in silent stared at the computer screen to wait for the scan imagine to appear.

Suddenly Derek turned to look at Arizona with a sheepishly smile and asked. "I've known Mark for… I don't know, since our childhood, I never saw him so trouble with anyone except me, what did he do to you to offend you?"

Arizona was shock because Derek wasn't the gossip kind of guy, as she thought. She frowned and then opened her mouth but couldn't form a word.

"Look, I am not trying to pry, just… Mark never took anything serious, but he came to me this morning all fidgety, said he did something terrible that you and Callie may never forgive him. I'm just curious."

Arizona's frown turned to a smirk. "Mark Sloan fidgeted?"

"Ya! That's why I am curious."

Well, now the peds surgeon found it amused. Mark and she were friends for years, they talked about their works, friends, families, relationships, even flings, but nothing really heavy that could cause serious emotion outbreak. Especially claimed that being a guy's guy, Mark never let his sensitive side revealed, he would mock the situation and used his bad boy charm to ease the tension. But letting someone saw him fidgeted, it was new.

"He tried to meddle with me and Callie, we found out he was kind of playing a trick behind our backs. I gave him a cold shoulder, and think Callie is going to cut him off." Arizona said casually, juggled a pen in her hand.

"Ha! That was mean! You both know how much he cares about you two, well play Robbins." They smirked to each other. "So how long are you going to chasten him?"

"Honestly, I don't know. I'll see what Callie wants to do."

They focused back to the computer screen for a while. "So, Mark is freaking out. I should go find him to get myself some fun." Arizona winked at Derek with a dimply smile.

* * *

Callie had the bag of food hanging on her shoulder, walking slowly entered SGMW hospital, her target was the peds wards. Waiting for the elevator, the Latina suddenly realized she should called ahead instead of showing up unannounced, after all it was a work place, especially it was a place that people may die in an instant.

However, it was too late since the elevator had opened in front of her, she entered the metal box along with 2 young women in the nurse uniform.

Once the doors closed, the nurses started to chat away, total unaware of there was someone else in there with them, obviously the casual wear and the bags of food made them think the Latina was a visitor that did not related to anyone who worked in the hospital, or they just didn't' care.

"What had happened to Colleen? She almost cut Mr. Chang's palm while handing him a scalpel in the OR today. That was like scrub nurse rule 101 – always hand the scalpel handle first, Colleen should know better than that."

"You didn't know? Dr. Robbins dumped her couple days ago, she was devastated."

"Silly girl, she really thought the infamous Dr. Robbins could stop fooling around for her?"

"Hey, we all thought Colleen tamed the female Sloan, when was the last time you heard anyone brag about getting the freak on with Dr. Robbins in the on-call room since Colleen? It was like the original Sloan stopped the hunt after Dr. Grey, who would know Colleen couldn't get the same happily ever after?"

"Is that mean Dr. Robbins is back in the game again?"

"Probably, I heard that she has eyes on the new nurse in Plastic, that's why she spends so much time in that floor…"

The elevator stopped in the nurses designated floor, both of them departed with their conversation, left the startled woman in there pondering with the new information she just got.

Deep in her thought, didn't realize that the elevator already sent her to the peds floor. Approached the nurse station, she asked for Dr. Robbins.

"Dr. Robbins… she is not on the floor…." The nurse looked around and then checked the book on the desk. "She is not in surgery…"

"I think she said she'll go up to the plastic wing for a while, I heard she told Dr. Shepherd earlier." Another nurse who passed by the station interrupted them.

The first nurse in front of Callie asked. "May I ask what is it for? Maybe I can page her for you."

"_She spends a lot of time in plastic for the new nurse" _The conversation of the 2 nurses in the elevator kept looping in Callie's mind.

"Ma'am?"

Snapped out of her thought, Callie answered. "Oh it's just fine, I'm a friend, just thought to pay a visit, I'll call her later, thanks." Then she turned around toward the elevator.

Didn't wait for the respond from the nurse, Callie made a quick turn and about to stride, suddenly a flash of blond ran into her, correction, skated into her.

"Wow, be careful." Callie caught the person collided to her out of reflection, when she pulled back and helped the other to stand steadily, she found that person was the one she came here for. "Arizona! What are you doing?"

"Oh hey Callie, good catch!" Arizona beamed when she looked up and found it was Callie that she bumped into.

"Good catch? You crashed into me." The Latina dropped the hands that were holding the peds surgeon's arms for stabilizing her. "Luckily I am not a patient in here, think about how many bones you were going to crush if I were a dying one that were not strong enough to brace you?"

"Prrr… you are so dramatic. And in my defense, you took a sudden turn that was why I almost ran into you."

"This is a hospital, full of people in here, and people make sudden turns. Seriously, this is too dangerous Arizona…"

"I am skilled, don't worry." The smiling blond just waved her hand to try to brush this off. "Why are you here? Is everything alright?"

"Here, I got this for you. I just… I couldn't sleep so, I cooked. I made too much and I thought to bring you some, as for a thank you and an apology, for last night…" Callie handed over the tote bag bashfully.

"Callie, you don't have to…" The blond peeked in the bag with a grin. "It looks good, sure better than the mysterious meat in the cafeteria, thank you." Arizona looked at the woman in front of her with a full force dimply smile.

"You are welcomed. I… Ummm… I should go." Callie pointed toward the elevator ahead of the direction and started to step away. "Bye Arizona."

Arizona watched the brunette walked away in a hurry, she called after her. "Hey Callie, it's my lunch break now, would you like to share these with me?" She held up the bag.

Callie turned around and answered "I… Ummm… have some errands to run, you enjoy it." After a sheepish smile, she wheeled and continued her path to leave.

Arizona followed the Latina to the elevator, eyeing her while they were waiting. "Do you have any plan tonight? Want to grab a bite together?"

"I… errr… I don't know, I think I should go to work tonight, shouldn't leave Joe alone 2 nights in a row."

"OK, then I'll come for a drink later."

"Ummm… ok… see you then." Callie just rushed into the elevator as soon as it was opened.

Sensing something was wrong, Arizona stopped the door from closing. "Callie, is it some wrong? Do you want to talk?"

"Nothing, I just… I have to go Arizona, bye." The locked eyes, then the blonde back away to let the elevator door closed in front of her.

Walked toward the attending's lounge with the bag in hand, Arizona was wondering what had happened with Callie. The brunette had opened up to her last night, she was fine when Arizona left the place, but how come she withdrew again? And most importantly, if she want to withdraw, why brought foods to the hospital?

Opened the door to the lounge, she found Mark and Teddy were there sitting on the couch talking.

"No Mark, I am not going to help you fix your problem… Hey Arizona you are here, can you tell this man to leave me alone? I won't help him to win you back, or something." When Teddy saw her friend was settling on the table, she got up and walked to her. "Are you OK?"

Arizona just nodded her head and put the bag down, Mark came to join them and then looked into the bag. "What do you get in here? Paella, cocido, gazpacho… These are Spanish foods." Mark paused when he picked up another box. "Chicken piccata…? These are Callie's famous chicken piccata? Where did you get these?"

"She just dropped it by." Arizona answered impassively.

"She was here? When? How was she? Was she still mad at me?" Mark asked desperately, but the blonde just looked roll her eyes.

"Oh come on Arizona, please, I am dying in here. I know I was wrong, I shouldn't interfere but I really did it to protect the both of you, you know how much I love you, you are my sister. And I love Callie with the same, I was there when she crumbled like a damn cookie after… her last girlfriend broke up with her, but I didn't stuck around to pick up the pieces then she married that loser. I promised her that I won't let her do anything stupid when she agreed to move to here." At this point, Mark was literally begging for forgiveness, sadness written all over his blue eyes, Teddy was amazed and Arizona too, but internally, she was not going to cave so easily.

"So what you mean is, getting close to me is a stupid move that you have to protect her from doing?" Tilted her head to the side, Arizona dared Mark to answer the question. Being on the blind spot of Mark's, Teddy was watching the whole scene with delight.

Mark dropped his head with frustration, held up a hand to rub both of his temples, he was out of his element in there. Mark Sloan was always a doer, to him talking was overrated, but in this moment he started to think maybe he was wrong.

Suddenly a hand patted on his shoulder, raised his head to look into the piercing blue eyes, couple of second later the smiling blonde in front of him said "Fine, I knew why you didn't tell me she is a bi, I understood why you didn't want her to know I am available. But it doesn't mean I am pleased with it, you owe me a big one."

A huge grin slowly appeared on the face of the plastic surgeon, breathed out a sigh of relief he threw himself forward to hug the woman tight. "Mark… Mark… can't breathe….."

"Oh I am just too happy." Mark released the embrace and rubbed the eyes by his palms. Teddy sneered. "Are you crying?" "No!" Then he stood up and walked toward the fridge, stuck his head in there to pretend looking for something.

The two women just giggled to each other.

And when Mark finally returned with 2 bottles of water in hands to join his colleagues on the table, he asked. "So, we are going to look at the boxes or can we eat them? Cal can cook and I really prefer these than the things from the cafeteria, you know I never eat anything from there except the apples."

"Sure." The three of them worked together to microwave the foods, grabbed some table wares and napkins, then sat together to dig in.

"Oh my god, these are really god." Teddy exclaimed.

"I told you, Callie really can cook. Back in New York, she often invited Addie and I went over to have dinner party. She liked to make a lot of different dishes because her girlfriend loved her Spanish cuisine, we always said we were invited just because she need someone to help finishing the load of foods." Mark smiled to the memory and then put a piece of chicken piccata in mouth. "God I missed this, the last time I ate this…" He froze.

"Since Malena died?" Arizona asked.

Mark looked at the blonde wide-eyed, she nodded. "She told me last night."

"She was a mess for a very long time, I don't think she ever had this kind of big production since then." He gestured the foods on the table.

"She said she couldn't sleep, so she cooked."

"She used to cook with Malena. Mal didn't cook, but she would sit in the kitchen for hours just to watch, said Callie looked sexy with a scraper in hand."

"What are you guys talking about?" Teddy asked curiously.

"Callie's late girlfriend." Mark said. "I couldn't believe she told you, she didn't tell me herself."

"Girlfriend? As in… her lover? I thought she had a husband."

"She had a late girlfriend, led to an ex-husband." This time it was Arizona answered the question, then put another spoonful of paella in her mouth. "Yes Mark, she told me, everything."

"Everything… you mean, since she moved to New York?"

"Yup."

"Uhh… ok."

For a good 5 minutes no one said anything, they just enjoy the food quietly.

Suddenly Teddy screeched that caused the other two jumped. "I got it! Now I knew why you were angry with Mark, you said he didn't tell you Callie is a bi, now I knew it." The exciting long hair blonde slapped the man sat next to her in the back.

"Ouch! What the hell Teddy? It hurts! That conversation was like a thousand years ago!" Mark exclaimed and tried to reach to the back to rub the throbbing area.

"Yes Teddy, don't you kind of slow?" Arizona was laughing at Mark's childish reaction.

"Hey, I am well-known with my leisured realization, it took me years to know Hunt liked me, and months to know the guy I married actually into me, remember? This time it just took 20 minutes, already quicker than normal." Teddy smirked and massaged Mark's back to ease the pain.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, I just borrowed the name of the characters for entertaining, no intention to violate any copyrights.

A/N : stuck in a pub with my bosses, they're chitchatting and I just take out my ipad to mind my own business, so yea, why not to put another chapter out :-) just found that this chapter is a bit shorter than the others, hope you guys won't mind.

* * *

Chapter 9

Joe arrived in Horizon a little passed 2, surprised that the metal gate had been pulled up already, that indicated Callie was already in there.

Opened the door, there was Callie sitting by the small stage lost in reverie. Joe went over to sit next to his boss, wrapped his arm around the other, he asked "What now?"

"Nothing."

"Callie…"

"Do you think, I could find another Malena?" Callie tilted her head to look at Joe.

"No, you couldn't." Joe returned the glance, and then continued "There was only 1 Malena, just as only 1 Callie, only 1 Joe, and only 1 Arizona."

"Then, do you think I am capable of loving another one like I loved her?" The brunette leaned her head on Joe and asked softly.

"You are capable of doing anything, Callie. Don't sell yourself short, you are smart, you are charming, you are gorgeous, and most importantly, you are caring, you have a big heart, no doubt that you could love someone deeply, truly and wholly."

"Why couldn't I love George?"

"He was the wrong one at the wrong time, you knew it, he knew it. Love could grow stronger, but you can't grow love from nothing. You didn't love him, you just didn't want to be alone. And for him? You were good for his ego, to have a stunning and successful woman next to him made him feel better about his miserable life, but he didn't love you, because people won't destroy the person that they love." Joe stated affirmatively.

"You really don't like him." Callie chuckled slightly. "Seriously, none of my friends like him. What was I thinking?"

"You weren't thinking, you soaked yourself into sorrow and grief, you were numb to the world."

"Do you know, Mark didn't know Malena was dead?"

"I know, and he knew it."

"You told him?" Callie was startled. "When?"

"When you were in LA. I told Mark the first thing when I arrived in here to take care of the renovation, had to make sure he won't talk about the sore subject. Forgive me?" The big guy ducked his head to look at the Latina in the eyes.

"I love you, brother." Callie leaned her head on Joe's shoulder again.

"I love you too, little sis." Joe kissed the head of the brunette, who had her eyes closed.

"Will you marry me if you were not gay?"

"No, you are too tough, I liked my woman soft, fragile, feminine." They both laugh out loud. "And you have to stop asking people to marry you, there are a lot of crazy people out that, you may run into another George who is crazy enough to marry you just because he loves to get married."

"Joe, I am scared. I don't know if I could afford to love a wrong person, I feel … she could break me easily."

"What make you think that?"

"You know those nurses from the hospital?"

"OK, what have you hear?"

"I went to there couple hours ago tried to find Arizona, overheard some nurses said Arizona is a female Sloan."

"Oh…"

"Yea, oh. A female Sloan just dumped someone she had been… umm… _doing_ for few months because she has eyes on a new nurse in plastic."

"But Callie, you know those nurses, they are full of negative energy toward the well paid doctors, you can't believe what they said…." He caved when locked eyes with Callie. "Fine, they got the first hand news, but I say you can't trust all those things they said."

"But Arizona admitted that she kept the friends with benefit relationship with that one…"

"That doesn't mean anything, and as you said they were finished."

"Why are you siding hers?" Callie cast a sideways glance at Joe.

"Because I know you too well, you like her. You are not looking for reasons not to be with her, you are seeking for supports, to back you up about the idea of starting something with her."

"Have I told you I love you?"

Joe kissed the top of Callie's head again. "There's one thing you have to ask yourself first though, are you sure you are not just to get a replacement of Malena?"

"I… I don't think I am. Of course I didn't think I could like someone else so quickly, after all Malena was gone not even a year. But I think I passed the fifth stage of grief that afternoon when I told you guys I was going to leave New York, I was kind of accepted that she was gone… forever, and she didn't want me to anguish because of her."

"You are right." Joe smiled to her. "Talk to Arizona, tell her what you think and let her answers your questions."

"I will, when I'm ready."

"Are you working tonight? You look exhausted."

"No, I don't want to work tonight." Callie stood up to stretch, turned around and said "What would I do without you in my life?"

"You won't ever need to find out." Joe grinned to his beloved friend.

"Thank you." Callie leaned down to kiss him on the cheek, then walked toward upstairs to home.

* * *

Later that night, Arizona entered Horizon with the same tote bag that Callie gave her at noon, the different was the boxes inside was empty and well washed. She walked straight to the bar, surprised that there was only Joe in there, again.

"Hi Joe, how are you?" She sat on the stool on the side of the bar, glanced around tried to spot the Latina.

"I'm fine, Dr. Robbins, do you want something to drink?" The big guy asked with the smile.

"Told you, you can call my name, I could like to have a Manhattan, please. Is Callie around? She said she is going to work tonight."

"Ah no, she still didn't feel well, said a headache or something because she didn't sleep last night, hopefully she's sleeping upstairs now." Joe put the drink in front of the blonde doctor.

Arizona nodded and took a sip of her drink.

Joe leaned toward to have his elbows on the countertop, getting closer to the woman and said. "I like Callie, and I like you, so I am going to tell you this. Callie used to process her feeling out loud, but life had been really rough to her then she withdrew to protect herself." He continued when he had the full attention from the doctor in front of him. "Don't let her drive you away if you like her, stick around, don't let her drive you away, she'll come around."

Joe nodded to Arizona then turned to another customer, left the blonde to ponder on his speech.

Stared in space for a while, Arizona decided tonight was not the time to stalk Callie, took a big gulp of the drink and then stood up from her seat, she called Joe and handed over the tote bag. "Can you give these to Callie, and tell her I stopped by? And if she wants, she can call me or text me anytime. Oh and … Never mind, I'll text her myself. Thanks Joe."

Walking out of the pub, she pulled out the phone from her bag and started to text '_Hi, I stopped by the pub but Joe told me you're not feeling well, hope you are resting and I __didn't__ wake you up. Just want to thank you for the foods, hope you won't mind that I shared them with Mark and Teddy because they __were in__ the attending lounge__ when I ate them__. We all agreed that you are an amazing cook, the foods were delicious ;-) Call me or text me when you are available, ok? I'll wait.' _

Walked closer to her building, the phone what was still in her hand started to ring, surprise to see that it was Callie calling, already.

Took a deep breath, Arizona answered the call. "Hello."

"… Hi Arizona."

"Callie, how are you feeling?"

"… I am fine, thanks for asking."

"I left the boxes to Joe, because you weren't there."

"… Thanks, I'll get it tomorrow."

"I had to share them with Teddy, and Mark, hope you won't mind."

"… That is OK."

"Mark literally in tears when he tasted the chicken piccata, he missed that."

"… I'm glad."

Each question took Callie quite some time to answer, and it came out short and flat, Arizona started to loss it.

"Callie, do you want to talk? Do you want me to come over? I am just around the corner."

Arizona could hear the deep breath from the other end of the phone, then she heard "I am not ready."

"Not ready for what?" The blonde asked softly, lower herself to the steps of the building's doorway.

"Not ready for… you. I am scared and I know we should talk, in person. But I don't even ready to face you yet…"

"Callie… Can you at least tell me why did you pull away again?"

"I…"

"Tell me what made you scared, let's talk about it before we drove ourselves crazy, ok?"

"Are you a womanizer?" Callie asked after a long pause.

"What?" It really took Arizona by surprise.

"I overheard the nurses talked about you and Colleen, they said you are female Sloan… And I knew the male Sloan…"

"I knew this is going to bite me in the ass… I had my past, and I am not proud of it. Remember I told you my family moved in every 18 months because of my dad? I think that was why I had no intention of keeping any long team relationship, I had a girlfriend from college, another one from med school, both didn't last longer than 8 months. I didn't know if things will last, so, I kept it casual."

"Then… what am I to you?" Callie asked with uncertainty lingered in her voice, that almost broke Arizona's heart.

"I know '_I don't know_' is not the answer you are looking for, but for the moment this is the only answer I have. I don't fully trust myself that I won't hurt you, but I will do my best not to." She stated firmly, and she really hoped the person on the other end of the phone could feel it.

All Arizona could hear was a sigh from the phone.

"We don't have to rush to anything, ok? We rush, we'll make mistake, just take your time. We can hang out like we did in the last couple weeks, no need to decide where we stand now, just go with the flow."

"After last night, I didn't scare you off?"

Smiled slight, Arizona answered "No, you didn't."

"… Thank you." A whisper came from the phone.

"No, thank you, for telling me." Arizona said sincerely, and she added "If you ever need someone to talk to, I'm all ears."

"… Thank you, again."

"I… ummm… talked to Mark today. He seemed really regret of what he did, Derek said he never saw Mark so panic over someone. Apparently we have some kind of power over him. I had to forgive him when he almost burst into tear in front of me and Teddy, but I had reminded him that he owes me a big one."

"I am not mad at him, I knew he always being over protective. When I told him about me married George, he almost hopped on a plane to make me a widow."

"Ha! He always tells me he has my back, I thought he was just saying it, this side of Mark is kind of new to me." The blonde chuckled.

"Well, when everything in your life is always a disaster, you could be no stranger to Mark Sloan the protective big brother." Callie said bitterly.

"I'm sorry."

"No, you have nothing to sorry about, it's fine. When you see Mark, can you tell him I'm not angry? I just… don't want to talk to him yet."

"No problem, I'll tell him, no need to worry about that."

"Thanks. I should go…"

"Yes, get some sleep, get better soon."

"Thank you, bye Arizona"

"Wait, Callie."

"Yes?"

"… don't try to avoid me again, please?"

Soft laugh came through the phone "You have my words."

"Thanks. Sleep like an angel, Callie."

"Good night Arizona."

The call ended, but Arizona remained on the steps, thought about Callie, thought about the heartbreak she went through, the pain was so big that made her made a massive mistake of life. She couldn't bring herself to think about if she would be enough to fill this big hole in Callie's heart.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a shadow coming closer, looked up and greeted the other with a deadpan. "Hi Mark."

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Mark sat next to Arizona, full of concern.

"Thinking. I talked to Callie, just minutes ago." She held up her phone.

"Ya, how is she doing? I didn't dare to enter there yet."

"She didn't go to work tonight, Joe said she didn't feel well. I texted her, she called back."

"And?"

"She forgave you. She is not mad at you, just doesn't ready to talk yet. She and I have to talk too, but have to wait when she is ready. She told me she's scared."

"Understandable."

"Not complaining." Arizona smile lightly.

"What do you want to do?"

"To be honest, I don't know. You know I haven't been in serious relationship like… forever, Callie couldn't handle a fling and I don't even know if I just want a fling with her or something more. I don't just want to rip off her clothes, I am thinking to go on a date with her, with flickering candle light and fancy waiters to bring us foods pour us wine."

"Have you told her that?"

"She said she is not ready, Mark. We will have the talk when the time is right, for now, I told her to go with the flow."

"Sounds like a plan."

"Yup. And she promised that she won't avoid me again."

Mark extended his arm to wrap around Arizona for a tight huge, kissed the top of her head. The blonde put her head on Mark's shoulder, both sat in silent enjoying the quiet in the night.

After a while, Arizona asked without looking up "Do you think, this will turn really bad?"

"Do you like her?" Mark asked softly.

"I like her even before I knew she likes women, now I feel like… I have a chance, you know. She's hot."

"Tell me about it." Mark chuckled, that earned a slap on the arm from Arizona.

"Don't hate me, ok? As I said before, I don't want anyone of you get hurt. As your friend, I knew Callie was broken. As her friend, I knew you have commitment issue. How could I…"

"So I should stay away?" The blonde asked.

"Don't ask me, I tried and that almost cause me my two best friends, I am going to stay out of it. You are on your own kiddo."

"Are you serious? Not even if I ask you information about Callie?"

"You are on your own." Mark kissed her temple, then stood up and pulled the woman along. "Time to go home, get some sleep, you have to work tomorrow."

They walked side by side to the building, entered the elevator and marched to their doors, before entered their respective apartments, Mark turned and said "Just follow the flow, as you said it. Good night."

"Good night Mark, thank you."


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, I just borrowed the name of the characters for entertaining, no intention to violate any copyrights.

A/N: please, nice beta reader who is reading this shitty work, who doesn't mind to help me out, please contact me, I really would need a hand, thanks a million!

* * *

Chapter 10

As promised, the Latina bartender didn't avoid Arizona, or Mark. However, the doctors were working in crazy schedule for 2 weeks, it made it looked like the two of them were evading to step foot in Horizon. Mark came in for a couple of times, but he was so tired that only took a drink then headed home to rest. Arizona? Not once.

The blonde doctor was dealing with a little boy that came to her table since he was 6 years old, over the 4 years they were able to pull him back from the other side, but thing was going south and the senior attending herself really didn't want to leave the boy to the residents, let along the interns. Therefore, she was pretty much living in the hospital in the last 2 weeks.

As a good friend, Callie tried to offer comforting words and encouragements over the phone, the exchanged texts and calls once in awhile, it was appreciated because the voice of the Latina really could ease the nervousness in the surgeon's stomach.

The calls and texts were nice and they seemed getting closer to each other, but without seeing each other for 2 weeks, the Latina was getting restless. That's why she was rubbing the same spot on the bar top for a good 20 minutes.

"Callie, are you OK? You're about to rub a hole on the counter top." Joe set down a case of beer which he carried from the back

"I'm fine." Callie blushed, put the cloth away then helped Joe to put the beer in the fridge.

"Uh ah." Joe didn't ask more, because he knew Callie too well.

"Do you think she really is that busy? I mean I know doctors are busy, especially surgeons but 2 weeks? Really? Even Mark stopped by several times for a drink, and other doctors came by every now and then. Do you think she's playing hard to get? Or or or she really is a player and found another target who is not as damaged as me?" Callie looked Joe in the eyes but didn't wait for an answer, she just continued the verbal diarrhea. "Maybe she thought I was shutting her down by saying that I wasn't ready, and she just didn't want to waste anytime to wait for me. I'm sure she is avoiding me, I'm losing a friend. And Mark will have to choose between me and Arizona and I'm sure he is going to choose her because they are both doctors and professional and work together and and and smart and and talented and and oh my god I am going to lose 2 friends… What am I going to do Joe?"

It took a great power for Joe not to laugh at the obviously freaked out woman in front of him.

"Callie, listen to me, you are not damaged." Joe put a hand on Callie's shoulder when she was about to cut him off. "You are not damaged. You and Arizona had texted and called each other, right? She could just ignore your calls if she was avoiding you, so no, she is not avoiding you."

"But… what if…."

"No but, no what if, you are over thinking, you know over thinking just leads you to the worst, so stop it. Not again, it's getting old!"

Callie mumbled something under her breath and then continued her task of putting the beer in the places, Joe just smirked slightly and went to the back to pick up another case of beer prepared for the night.

Before coming to Seattle, Callie didn't really know working in a hospital could be so stressful that almost every staff in there has to have a drink after work. And she also didn't know, people could be so gossipy. For example, the 2 women sitting in front of her on the bar, Olivia and Meg, the nurses from the hospital across the street, were there sharing secret information of their colleagues for an hour already.

Callie didn't pay much attention to them until a third woman arrived and sat down next to her friends and started to sigh very dramatically, then picked up her friend glass of white wine to take a big gulp.

"Jeez, are you all right?"

"I am beat." The new comer said and finished the wine with another big gulp.

"Oh come on, we all know your floor is the most cheerful department in the whole hospital, your boss won't even let you guys work too hard to ruin the _peaceful rhythm_ in the _magical place_." Olivia said.

"Ya, you have no idea how many time I tried to transfer to PEDS." Meg cut in, "Deb from HR told me the waiting list is longer than the list of the women in the hospital who had slept with McSteamy.

"Well, not since the Anderson kid admitted again. Do you know Dr. Robbins hasn't leaves the hospital for 10 days straight? She just lives across the street but doesn't dare to leave the boy for a second. I heard little Grey had to go over her apartment to pick up the changing clothes for her."

"I heard the Anderson offers a lot of money to the hospital, the chief almost climbed across the table to give the Anderson kisses on the lips. But there is a condition though, Dr. Robbins has to keep the kid alive." Olivia talked to the other 2 with excitement.

"Oh god, that is outrageous. Vivian, how does Dr. Robbins take it?"

"Real bad." The one who obvious was Vivian answered the question, and then ordered a round of white wine for them. "She is under a great pressure from the chief and the mean guy from the board… Jennings, they are giving a lot of pressure to Dr. Robbins, they forced her to operate on the boy this afternoon, we all felt terrible for her because the boy truly has no chance this time, it really is just the matter of time."

"Oh that was why the chief scrubbed in Dr. Robbins's surgery today? I heard Big foot told Tinkerbell that it was the first time he had the chief in one of his surgery, and he was in Dr. Robbins's service today." Olivia asked.

"Yes, poor Dr. Robbins, she rumbled under her breath the whole time saying something about the surgery was wrong, the boy shouldn't suffer this. I never saw her so stressed, Big foot told me to wipe her forehead to calm her down."

Callie put the glasses down in front of the 3 nurses casually, but actually she was listening to the conversation intensely. 2 men down to the end of the bar was waving at her tried to order their drinks, she dragged Joe by the hem of his shirt instructed him to do the job, she didn't want to leave the gossipy nurses, when they were talking about the woman she had been missing.

"The boy made it?"

"For now yes, but who knows? Tonight is critical." Vivian held up the glass about to put it to her mouth, stopped midway and asked the others. "Hey, Big foot was talking to Tinkerbell? I heard they had a thing back in Mercy West."

"No way, I heard she and Pretty boy was a pair."

"Too bad McSteamy had settled, sure he'd bang her in no time."

The 3 nurses laugh in unison.

Callie's mind was racing, she felt ashamed about guessing Arizona was avoiding her, and she felt bad about the blonde had to deal with the situation like this. Within a minute, she made a decision and told Joe to take care of the pub for the rest of the night.

Rushed out the door, ran across the street to SGMW, Callie didn't think it thought, she just had to see Arizona. There wasn't much she could do to help, but having a supportive friend around could do more good than harm, she believed.

Arrived on the floor of PEDS, the Latina approached the nurse station to ask for Dr. Robbins.

"Do you have an appointment with her?" The nurse asked.

"Ummm… no, I'm a friend and just stop by to see her."

"I am sorry ma'am, we are not allowed to reveal …" But she was cut off by another nurse sitting behind a computer not far away. "You are the bartender in Horizon, right? Friend of Dr. Sloan and Dr. Robbins?"

"Yes, I am." Callie put on her best smile, everyone knew a nice friendly attitude could get you to anywhere.

The intruder stood up to walk to the front of the nurse station, seeing the other nurse was staring at her, she said "What? You know Dr. Robbins needs a friend right now." Then she pointed to a door down the hall. "She's in that on-call room 304."

Callie thanked the both of them, then turned her heels toward the room. Gently knocked on the door, she pushed it open slowly. In the dim light, she saw a shadow sitting on a bed with knees pop up to the chest. The opened door stirred the shadow, a pair of tearful blue eye looked up, Callie felt her heart gave a great throb.

Closed the door, Callie called out softly "Arizona…"

The next second, she felt the mess of blonde flew into her arms, without saying anything else, Callie just held on the crying woman tight, tenderly rubbing circles on the back to calm the emotional surgeon.

After a moment, they moved to sit on the bed without breaking the embrace, Arizona clung to Callie with her arms wrapped around the Latina's waist and head rested on the neck. The sob had stopped, now the blonde just taking deep breaths to calm herself, and inhaling the scents of the woman in her arms.

"How do you know I need you?" Arizona whispered, Callie couldn't help to tighten the grip of her arms in a protective mode.

"Some nurses talked about your day in my pub, I didn't think much but ran to here, I need to see if you're OK."

"Huh? Some nurses talked about me… behind my back… again?" Blonde head snapped up to look Callie in the eyes with horror.

"Shh…. Relax." The Latina lightly forced the blonde head back on the previous position with gently strokes. "This talk was good, people really like you, they respect you. Do you know they have nickname for everyone? I'd heard about Big foot, Tinkerbell, McSteamy, McDreamy, Nazi… But they only refer you as Dr. Robbins." Callie felt the woman in her arms chuckled. "And it seems every nurse in this hospital want to work in your service."

Arizona sat up with a smile on her face, wiped the tear stains off the corner of her eyes and said. "Thank you, it really makes me feel better."

"I'm not lying, I was not supposed to know you are in here because the nurse shouldn't tell me the unannounced visitor where the doctor is, but one of your nurse recognized me as your friend, told me to get in here, she said you really need a friend now." Callie smoothly slid her hand from Arizona's shoulder along the arm to hold the hand, looked deeply in the blue eyes and said "I am glad I came."

Arizona beamed sheepishly, leaned forward to kiss Callie on the cheek "Thank you."

Still holding hands, Callie wrapped the free hand around Arizona's shoulder to pull her closer. "So how is the boy?"

Took a deep breath, the surgeon tried to hold the emotion "I don't know, I hope he could make it but … most unlikely."

"You did what you have to do, remember that. You told me he wasn't supposed to make it 3 years ago, he and his parents got an extra 3 years."

"I wish I could do more." The exhausted woman started to sob again.

The Latina ducked her head to look at Arizona, rubbed her shoulder with force as to give her strength to get herself together "Hey hey, you did more than you could, you gave them extra time, you are amazing. Listen to me, you are amazing."

The surgeon nodded slightly against Callie's shoulder, fatigued written all over her face. Callie shifted her position, pulled Arizona along further in the bed, had her back leaned against the wall.

"You are tired, close your eyes sleep a little bit, you need to restore the energy. I'm here, just close your eyes." The Latina cooed, with her hand softly stroking the blonde hair.

Arizona didn't put on a fight, she was overstrained for days, with Callie in there made she relaxed and then the exhaustion finally kicked in. She lowered herself on the bed, wrapped her arms around the laps of the woman next to her, fell in a fast sleep.

Callie sat there looking at the sleeping beauty, didn't move a bit except her hand kept stroking the blonde hair and the tear stained cheek. Suddenly the door clicked open, it was Mark who poked his head in the room, seeing the 2 women in bed, he entered the room quietly and closed the door as light as possible.

"Hey." He whispered.

"Hey." Callie looked at him but didn't stop the movement of her hand.

"I just came out of a surgery. How is she doing?"

"Not good, I think. Just slept for … an hour." She checked the time, didn't realize she was in this position for a whole hour.

"Do you want to switch?"

"Nah, I'm good, and I am afraid it will stir her if I moved."

Out of the blue, perturbation outside the door, they could hear people running and shouting, as in cue, the pager on Arizona's hip started to beep. Got up in an instant, she peeked at the offending machine and frowned. "Shit, Wallace is coding, I have to go..."

She didn't even have time to wonder why Mark was in the room, she ran out of there to try to get to the dying boy as fast as she could. On her way ran down the hall, she turned around and shouted "Mark, take Callie to the cafeteria or my office, I'll go find you guys later." Not waiting for an answer, she disappeared around the corner.

Mark turned to Callie, who looked really worried because she knew the boy may not make it and that would crush Arizona hard without a doubt.

"Mark, we need to make sure she's OK."

Mark looked around pondering what to do, finally he leaned against the nurse station and told the nurse to update him the situation if anything came up. Then he led Callie out of the PEDS ward toward the cafeteria.

Settled the anxious Latina on a table, the plastic surgeon went over to get some coffee. In the meantime, there were Cristina and Meredith came close to the table.

"What are you doing here? You don't have to bartend tonight?"

"No I don't Cristina." Callie replied coldly, she really was not in the mood of chit chatting right now.

"Jeez, what's her problem Sloan?" Cristina asked the man just returned to the table.

"Be nice Yang, we are worried about Robbins, the short gut boy is coding."

"The short gut boy is coding?" Meredith exclaimed.

"Oh, he won't make it this time. The chief will be pissed, he almost got the money. Good luck with roller skate girl. Mer we have to go, I have to scrub in Altman's surgery."

"Bye guys." Then the twisted sisters left.

The 2 remained on the table, Callie was staring in space and fidgeting with her fingers.

"Mark we can't wait in here, we should wait near to the OR, then she could see us when she got out of there."

"A surgery could last for a very long time, the nurse will page me when it was finished. Just relax in here, have some coffee, everything will be alright."

"No Mark, I don't need any coffee, Arizona said the boy may not make it, Cristina just said the boy won't make it, don't you think that won't take much time? I am going." She stood up and about to run out of the cafeteria, but turned back to Mark "You need to show me the way, I don't know where is it."

"Fine, let's go."

The 2 friends strode toward the surgical floor, the whole time Callie had her hands grasped at the arm of the man next to her, some nurses and doctors were looking at them but she really didn't care, there was only 1 thing in her mind right now.

Just right when they stepped out of the elevator, they saw from far away, a deadpan Arizona in pink scrub cap, with a huge guy in light blue scrubs stood next to her, talking to someone sitting on the couch. After the talk finished, she left the stunned guys and stepped away from them.

When she looked up and saw Mark and Callie were standing there in front of her, she couldn't hold it anymore. She ran toward them and threw herself to Callie, and the Latina just held her as tight as she could, whispering comfort words to the weeping woman in her arms.

Being friends with Arizona for years, Mark knew it well that the perky blonde doctor won't like to let people see her cry, especially in front of her boss. He quickly pressed the call button and got the elevator opened again, shoved the clasped women inside and he followed suit.

While the 3 of them alone in the metal box, Mark put a hand on the small of Arizona's back, and then asked softly "Are you OK?"

"He… He… supposed… to live…. I… I….. I…. fai… failed him…. I can't… I can't…" Her voice was muffled from the bawled and the fact that her face was buried in the crook of Callie's neck, and Callie had her cheek rested on the side of the blonde head.

"Breathe Arizona, just breathe…." Callie tenderly stroked the blonde hair, felt her heart broke a little from each wail came from the woman in her arms.

"Callie can you take her home?" Mark started to talk but his pager beeped, took a quick glance and then he said to Callie "You were right, good thing that we came here, the nurse _just_ told me the surgery was over, can you believe that? They spread gossip quicker than this!"

All Callie did was rolled her eyes and then gave him a dead glare.

"Right, not the time. Arizona listen, Callie is going to take you home, go and have a rest."

"But… But… I need… want…. need…. to…. talk to Bethany… I… kill…. I kill….."

Mark ducked his head to talk to Arizona. "Shh… You didn't kill her son, you did everything you could. Don't worry about it, I'll take care of everything, I'll talk to the chief, will get you some time off, you deserve it."

Arizona just nodded.

"Come on, I'll get you home." Callie coaxed when the elevator arrived in the ground floor.

"My bag… my key… locker…" Arizona whimpered.

Callie and Mark exchanged a look, then Callie tightened the grip on the blonde's shoulder "Sweetie, you come with me across the street, Mark will take care of your stuffs and bring it to us tomorrow morning, you stay with me tonight, OK?"

Arizona just nodded and sniffed liked a sad little girl, followed Callie walked out of the hospital.

By the time when they arrived in Callie's apartment, the cry had stopped. Arizona felt numb from the exhaustion, she just wanted to sleep but Callie insisted that she should take a warm shower to relax and clean up first.

After putting on the short and T-shirt offered by the Latina, she came out from the bathroom and found the scented candle was lighted, a small bottle of water placed on the night stand, and Callie had shut the curtain as well.

"I hope you like this scents, I always find water lily is kind of tranquilized." Callie entered the room, Arizona just had enough energy to give her a bashful smile, she was so tired.

After settled the blonde in bed, Callie stood next to the bed with her hand gently stroking the soft blonde hair. "Here's a bottle of water, and I put the house phone in here in case you want to call someone. I'll be in the guest room across the hall, let me know if you need anything, or if you want to eat, the kitchen is loaded…."

She stopped talking when Arizona gripped her hand and looked at her with the sad blue eyes.

"Can you stay? With me? I don't want to be alone tonight."

Without saying another word, Callie walked around the bed and got in after turned off the light on the night stand. The blonde rolled over to the other side, Callie took the sign and held the woman from behind.

They both breathed a sigh of relax, the Latina whispered before closed her eyes.

"Sleep like an angel, Arizona."


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, I just borrowed the name of the characters for entertaining, no intention to violate any copyrights.

A/N: Speacial thanks to my wonderful beta Pha, you are amazing, let's have fun together ;-)

* * *

Chapter 11

Callie woke up with a start. She glanced at the alarm clock by the nightstand and found herself waking up from a five hour sleep, too short for her liking, but still better than most nights. She knew it had something to do with the woman in her arms.

At some point during the night, the two of them had shifted their position. Now instead of spooning Arizona from behind, she found herself lying on her back with the blonde's head resting on her chest and an arm across her midsection.

Watching the sleeping beauty breathe peacefully for a while, Callie smiled knowing a good night sleep could make the blonde feel better after such an emotional roller coaster, and God knew how much Callie missed to wake up with someone in her arms. It was the best thing to wake up to.

Hearing a buzz coming from the nightstand, Callie grabbed her phone and saw that it was Mark asking if he could stop by with Arizona's bag, she quickly answered the message, then tenderly kissed the blonde's temple and drew herself out from the embrace. She walked out of the room towards the kitchen to start the coffee.

Callie left the door unlocked so Mark could enter without knocking. Slowly pushing it open, he saw Callie sitting by the breakfast bar, sipping coffee. He put Arizona´s handbag and coat on the couch and went over to the kitchen, poured himself a cup of coffee and sat next to his friend.

"How is she doing?"

"She's sleeping, seems pretty ok, went out like the light when she hit the bed last night."

"That's great." The man said as he blew on his hot coffee.

"Mark, does she cries like this every time a patient dies?" Callie propped her chin against her hand, couldn't help to frown because this wouldn't be the first time a patient died on the blonde's table, if she had a meltdown liked this for every dying kid, she would be too sensitive for the job, in a really bad way.

"Nah, the short gut boy was special. They followed Robbins here from Hopkins, and by the way they threw money to the hospital, they made the board their bitches. Arizona was under a lot of pressure." Mark sighed when he remembered how the Chief subtly instructed Robbins that she must do anything to keep the boy alive.

"So, what happens now?"

"I talked to the Chief, it seems he realized the mistake he made. As doctors we should invest on the patient, not pleased the parents or even the board, he was blinded by 25 million dollars. Anyway, he had no rejection of Robbins taking two days off."

"That sounds good, she needs some rest."

"Sure she does. I should go, I have an early shift today." Mark stood up to leave, but turned around to face Callie after few steps. "Have I told you I am sorry that I interfere between you and Arizona?"

"No, but it´s fine, I understand." The brunette smiled to her friend.

"Great. Love you." He walked back to Callie and pulled her in a tight hug.

"Mark, I think I'm ready." She said in a soft voice while Mark released her from the embrace.

"You are?" Mark raised an eyebrow and looked at the woman with surprise.

She nodded, and took a deep breath to stable the butterflies in her stomach. "I know how I feel about her, and who am I kidding? I could never fight my feelings, I will never learn to be cautious, if she hurts me…"

"…then I'll kill her." Mark cupped the Latina's face and looked into her brown eyes earnestly.

"I love you Mark." They exchanged a heartfelt smile, and then the man exited and closed the door behind him.

Returning to the bedroom after finishing her coffee, Callie walked in just in time to find that Arizona had started to stir and was looking at her with sleepily eyes.

"Hey." The blonde's voice was harsh from sleep. She stretched, a hand landing on the other side of the bed.

"Hey." Callie walked towards the bed with a smile. "How are you feeling?"

"Great. It's barely 7, and your side of the bed is cold, why did you get up so early?"

Sitting on the bed next to Arizona, still smiling towards the blonde, Callie said "I don't sleep much, and Mark just came by to drop off your bag and coat. You should go back to sleep, you still look drowsy. Mark said the Chief granted you a two-day holiday."

"Come back to bed?" Arizona shifted to the other side of the bed and pat on the now empty warm spot.

Callie complied happily. The blonde settled in her arms once she laid her back on the bed. The brunette couldn't help to sigh in the feeling of having the woman in her arms, and breathed in the scents from the other.

Arizona rested a hand on Callie's stomach, enjoying the moment of coziness.

"Thank you."

"Hmm?"

"I'm not use to be so… emotional towards a patient. Thank you for staying with me, you didn't leave me while I was being a psycho." The blonde's fingers nervously twisted the hem of Callie's shirt.

"You know, they teach in med school how not to care so much. Drape the patient's so you don't see their faces, do a thousand different things to care a little less. But you care like crazy, and I love that." She looked into blue eyes, took the fidgeting hand and linked it with hers, resting them back on her stomach.

"How did you know they taught us that in med school?" The blonde raised her head to look at Callie.

"I am a woman full of surprises, don't forget that." Tenderly circling her thumb on the back of a fair hand, Callie's smile grew wider when the woman in her arms slowly leaned in closer and closer to her.

"I won't." Arizona whispered against the plump lips, then closed the distance with a featherlike touch.

The kiss started light and slow, they were caressing each other's lips with their own, both afraid to startle their bubble, but soon the heat increased. Arizona smiled into the kiss when Callie freed the linked hand to grasp the back of her head to deepen the connection, and then using the now released hand to stroke the Latina´s stomach and sides gently.

A moan left Arizona's mouth as Callie greedily sucked on her lower lip, slightly shifting her position to be the top half, she slowly thrust her tongue into the brunette's mouth, Callie gladly matched the woman to entwine their tongues, hands roaming the blonde's soft curves.

With the new position, a fair leg unintentionally rested between tanned ones, the sensual pleasure was so strong that Callie had to break the kiss to gasp for air. Arizona moved her lips to suck on the soft neck and earlobe, a hand kneaded its way from hips to the side of Callie's breast, a groan came from the Latina that encouraged Arizona to suck harder on the pulse point.

Lips travelled lower and lower, a hand tangled the shirt making the hem go higher and higher… Callie bucked her back when a firm hand grasp on her bare ribcage and a thumb stroked the base of her breast. She gripped the hand to stop it from moving forward, and whispered to the blonde. "Oh God… Arizona… Arizona… we need to stop… please…"

Snapping out the aroused haze, the blonde quickly withdrew her hand and pulled away from the Latina. "I'm sorry Callie, I don't… know what I was thinking."

"Don't worry, I was thinking the same." Callie smiled and leaned towards the blonde to peck her lips, she then flopped back on the bed to catch her breath. Arizona followed suit, then the Latina clasped their hands together and rested them on her chest.

They laid like that until their hearts rates returned to normal. Callie propped herself up on her side, a hand supporting her head and the other lovingly caressing the face of the woman in her bed.

"I want it, I want you, but technically, I'm still George's wife…"

"Huh?" Arizona was confused. "You... Still love him?"

"What? No, I don't think I ever loved him. Just, I'm a married woman, if we go further, you know, that would make us cheaters. I don't care 'cos it was my mistake, I deserve it, but I don't want people to think you're the other woman." Callie said as she brushed her lips against a fair cheek so lightly.

"What are we going to do?" Arizona asked with her eyes closed, enjoying the soft caresses.

"I will call the attorney again, see how the progress with the annulment or divorce is. They told me that if George refuses to sign the papers, I can apply for unilateral divorce, but I don´t know how long it's going to take. I´ll call the attorney."

"No, I mean, what are we going to do, you and me." Blue eyes opened and gazed to brown eyes with nothing but love.

"Well… Do you want to go on a date with me?"

"More than anything, but isn't that against your no cheating rule?" The blonde teased with a lopsided smile.

Callie leaned in to chastely kiss pink lips. "Dating is allowed, my rule. We'll go on a date."

"And then?"

"Hmm?"

"If you couldn't divorce George, or if it took years to set you free, does that mean…. I can't touch you?" Arizona asked sheepishly.

"God please no." Callie laughed lightly.

"…Right? I mean, I can control myself most of the time, but… you are hot, you're really hot..." A hand sneaked up to grasp the Latina's hips, Callie just smirked to the blonde and landed a kiss on pink lips.

"We just need some rules, we can do this."

"Ugh…. Ask the kids in my ward, we hate rules." Arizona said pouting.

"Follow the rules, or no touching." Callie whispered leaning in to kiss the pout away.

"Fine…" Arizona smiled into the kiss, she tightened her grasp on Callie´s hip to pull the Latina closer to her.

"Arizona…"

"Mmm Hmmm…?" She leaned in to kiss the brunette.

"Behave yourself or I won't get in bed with you again… Please, I want to do this right." Callie tried to pull away from the kiss, but her body was still snuggled close to the blonde.

"I don't know if it's possible to do this wrong, but go on…" Arizona whispered while nuzzling Callie's flesh behind her earlobe.

"You know what I mean…"

"I know, and I'll do this with you."

"Arizona, can you be serious?" Callie finally pulled away and pushed the blonde back on the bed... For me?"

"Fine, fine, fine, let's start again. What kind of rules are you talking about? Hand holding, face touching… those things in public? Oh, can I wrap you from behind?" Arizona put a mischievous smile on her face while Callie stared at her.

"I'm talking about nothing below the Mason-Dixon lines of our pants, there're lots of undiscovered territory above the belt. We can take it slow. Maybe… just first base?" Callie smirked when she saw the mischievous smile on the blonde's face turned into a pout. "Alright, maybe second base too." Then she kissed her pink lips one more time. "…If you behave."

"I'll try."

"Good girl. Do you want to get some more sleep?"

"Nah, I'm up. I want to go home to change, don't know if Mark picked up my street clothes or not."

"OK, you go fresh up, I'll make you breakfast."

They walked out the room together, Callie towards the kitchen and Arizona to pick up her bag from the couch. She checked her mobile for messages and frowned when she found a missed call and a voice message from the Chief.

"Coffee is ready, you prefer scrambled eggs with crispy bacon, or pancakes or… what's wrong Arizona?" Callie asked when she saw the blonde pressing on the phone in panic.

"I don't know, the Chief called me last night." Clicking open the voice mail box, Arizona put the phone next to her ear. The Latina went over to stand in front of the fidgeting woman, clutched her free hand to give her support.

Arizona bit her bottom lip the whole time she was listening to the message, finally she put it down and looked at Callie. "The Andersons wants to meet me, they called a meeting at 11."

"Now go fresh up, breakfast will be ready in a minute, then go back to your place to get change, put on your best Dr. Robbins self to meet those people." Callie picked up their clasped hands and pressed Arizona's against her lips.

"Can you go with me? I mean not to the meeting, at least go with me to the hospital, I may need some support…"

"You don't have to ask. Now, go take a shower, I have some eggs to scramble."

The two arrived at the hospital hand in hand, Arizona was too nervous to notice the prying eyes around them. They stepped into an empty elevator, Callie kissed Arizona on the cheek. "Don't worry, everything will be fine."

"No Callie, I killed their son, they are going to sue me and the hospital, and they should."

"I thought we were passed this already. You didn't kill their son. Just… keep it together, you can do this." Callie squeezed her hand firmly.

The elevator was moving in a slow motion, the brunette could feel the nervousness of the other woman from their jointed hands. She ducked her head to peek at the blonde, she was shocked to see that usual sparkling blue eyes were watery, lips pursed to hold on a cry.

"Are you ok?"

"Did I ever tell you I have authority issues?" Arizona said in a small voice.

"What's that?" Eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"That means… I tend to cry when I go face to face with men of authority."

"Could you be any cuter?" Callie grinned and looked at the woman amused.

"This is not funny!" The blonde exclaimed. "How would they take my apology seriously when I start to cry for no good reason?"

"You are amazing, you can do this." Callie moved to stand right in front of the fidgety woman, gripped her shoulders with both hands and brown eyes stared straight into blues. "You are a great doctor, and you did everything you could. You are not God, you can't control everything. Now hold the tears, you look stunning in this make-up, don't ruin it."

It made the blonde chuckled, then leaned in to peck plump lips. "Thanks for being here with me."

They walked out of the elevator towards the Chief's office, two men walking out the door, stopped in their tracks when they saw Arizona.

"Hi Dr. Robbins." The black man greeted her.

"Chief, Mr. Jennings." Arizona said sheepishly, then saw that the men had turned their attention to the woman next to her. "This is my friend, Callie, Callie Torres."

"Nice to meet you, sir." Callie shook hands with both men respectively.

"Torres, as in… Torres Hotels?" Jennings eyes lighted up when he heard the name.

"Just a coincidence." Callie frowned, she disliked this man already.

"OK. Well, we should go to the conference room to wait for the Andersons, we lost 25 million dollars already, we can't afford to piss them off further and make them pull off more donations, Dr. Robbins." He then turned on his heels and walked down the hall.

"Dr. Robbins…" The Chief looked at his staff and gestured that they should go.

"Chief, I'll be there in a minute."

"See you in the conference room. Pleasure to meet you Miss Torres."

"Oh the pleasure is mine, sir." They shook hands again, Callie trying to hold back a smirk.

When the old man walked away, Callie hissed. "What's the problem with those guys? What a jerk."

"Callie…"

"Seriously, let's get Mark and Joe, we hold that bald guy on the ground, you can shave his head, not much on that stupid head anyway."

That made the blonde giggle and loose a bit. "They are my bosses, Callie."

"It doesn't mean you have to respect a jerk. You go kick their asses, I'll be waiting in the cafeteria." Callie went behind the blonde and jostled her towards the conference room, she stopped when they were just a couple steps away from the door, then shared a quick kiss for good luck.

When Arizona was about to enter the room, Callie murmured to the blonde. "Hey! Callie Torres and Torres Hotels? Not a coincidence."

"What!?" Arizona spun around with wide eyes, trying to grasp the smirking Latina who was quickly backing away from her.

"Kick ass, Dr. Robbins." And with that, the Latina ran down the hall as fast as she could.

The Chief went out the conference room when he heard the shout. "Is something wrong, Dr. Robbins?"

"No sir." Arizona blushed at being caught yelling by her boss, shocked by the new information from Callie. That woman was really full of surprises. She bowed her head about to get in the room; she was stopped by the Chief.

"Dr. Robbins, wait a minute."

"Sir…?"

"I shouldn't have let the board run my hospital, the surgery was a mistake, it wasn't right to put you on the spot, I should have supported you, I should have had your back... You have greatness in you, Dr. Robbins. Don't disappoint."

"Thank you Chief." Arizona was moved, and well, her authority issues kicked in and tears were threatening to fall, but she was trying to fight it, remembering Callie teasing her about her make-up.

In the meantime, the Anderson couple came out from the elevator. Grief lingered over Bethany's face, sorrowful eyes clouded with tears, a stuffed bunny grasped tightly in her hand. The fragile woman was leaning on her husband, the man had his arm wrapped around his wife protectively.

The couple trundled along to the doctors outside the conference room, Mrs. Anderson locked eyes with Arizona, lips started to tremble.

"Bethany…"

"It doesn't feel real, Arizona. I… I'm packing his things, I can't believe… I can't hold him anymore…" Then she collapsed in her husband's arms.

"Bethany, I am so sorry…" Arizona couldn't hold the tears anymore.

"Mr. Anderson, let's go inside to take a seat…" Jennings had heard the sounds and rushed out from the room towards the wealthy couple, he slightly shoved both doctors out of the way to let the Andersons enter the conference room. Looking inside the room, they saw Jennings pulling the chair for Bethany, and as soon as she sat down, he ran over to pour a glass of water and put it in front of the crying woman.

Putting a supporting hand on the fellow surgeon, the Chief led Arizona into the room, they sat down next to Jennings quietly, for minutes no one said anything, the only sound being Bethany's sobs. Finally, Mr. Anderson looked up from his weeping wife and began to talk.

"We never thought, we could see our son passed his 7 year old birthday, but we did. Thanks to you Dr. Robbins. We thought... I though, we could push our luck again… We had four more years with him, we know it was a bonus from God, we are grateful…" The man started to whimper, and his wife reached out a hand to caress his face and rested their foreheads together.

Jennings and the Chief released a breath that they were holding since Mr. Anderson started to talk, they were pleased that the couple was not going to sue the hospital, and unlikely going to withdraw the other donations that they had already made to the hospital.

After collecting himself, Mr. Anderson continued. "We promised to give Seattle Grace Mercy West hospital a 25 million dollars donation, to find a cure for short gut syndrome, to help other children that suffer from the same illness as my son…" Jennings's eyes popped out while the donation was mentioned, it wasn't unnoticed by the man who was talking.

"You don't have to worry Mr. Jennings, we will keep our promise, not because of your ass-kissing, but for you, Dr. Robbins, you gave us more than we expected…"

"I..." Arizona was speechless.

"Another thing, once Dr. Bailey shared an idea with my wife about having a free clinic," the man looked at his wife who was nodding to his words. "We will give another 8 million dollars to this hospital, to open a Wallace Anderson memorial pediatrics clinic, we want Dr. Robbins and Dr. Bailey co-administer this project."

"Mr. Anderson, this is… very generous, thank you." The Chief was the first to speak, Arizona was still in shock, her mouth opened and closed a couple times but there were no sounds.

"We will keep in touch about the details, now… we have to pack our son's thing…" The Andersons stood up to leave, they shook hands goodbye, but Bethany pulled Arizona in for a tight hug and said to her "Thank you Arizona, and take good care of the clinic."

"I will, Bethany, I will." The blonde whispered her promised.

After the couple left, Jennings started to talk. "Wow, that was close, I thought we were going to lose the 25 million dollars, and who knew we could get an extra 8 million! Great job Dr. Robbins, I always knew you were a good doctor."

Arizona looked at the Chief, the man lightly scrunched his face signaling the PEDS surgeon not to mind that comment, she simply thanked Jennings and then excused herself.

Out of the conference room, Arizona ran in full force towards the cafeteria, the elevator couldn't come soon enough, so she decided to use the stairs. Passing by Miranda on her way, the shorter woman scolded "No running in the hospital Dr. Robbins!"

"Oh Bailey, you have the money for the clinic now!" Arizona shouted to Miranda, but didn't stop her track.

"WHAT?" The short woman frowned and put a hand on her hip.

"You have a clinic, talk to the Chief!"

When Arizona arrived to the cafeteria, she was absolutely out of breath and sweat coated her redden face. Looking around, she found Callie sitting in one of the tables with her own colleagues, oblivious to her presence yet. Suddenly the Latina turned around, apparently someone on the table told her about the blonde's arrival.

Callie rose up immediately and was about to stride towards Arizona, but the PEDS surgeon was quicker and ran across the cafeteria, and literally threw herself into the Latina's arms.

"What happened?"

"Mr. Anderson kept the promise to donate 25 million to the hospital, and an extra 8 million to open a free clinic." Arizona pulled herself away so she could look Callie in the eyes.

"That's great!" The Latina grinned.

"It is. It is going to be a pediatrics clinic, and they want me to take care of it with Miranda."

"Wow Dr. Robbins, I always knew you were amazing. Do you need to stay to discuss some stuff or you still have the day off?"

"Don't have to do that now, we can get out of here, you owe me a date, and some explanations, Miss Callie Torres." A dimpled smile plastered on the blonde's face while she walked out of the cafeteria with a beaming Latina hand in hand.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, I just borrowed the name of the characters for entertaining, no intention to violate any copyrights.

A/N: Just realized I skipped the first date, sorry guys. I'm working on a dancing night in later chapter, please be patient.

Once again, thanks to my wonderful beta Pha, you are the best!

* * *

Chapter 12

"I still cannot believe I'm dating someone with money, so rich that has hotels named after her." Arizona was sitting on the stool next to the breakfast bar, watching her date prepared dinner for them.

"Can you drop it already? I told you, it wasn't my money, my parents are rich and the hotels were named after them." Callie said while she held up a piece of tomato in front of the blonde, who happily opened her mouth to take it.

The two had been dating for two weeks, but the doctor was busy with regular duty, and the project for the clinic with Bailey ate up quite a lot of her time as well. And due to the working hours of the bartender, they didn't get much time together, just those two days from two weeks ago, and several stole time in Horizon during the night.

Today Bailey decided that she should actually spend some time with her son, so with no meeting after work, the PEDS surgeon was free for the evening. As soon as she texted Callie about it, the Latina grabbed her coat, and headed to the market to get the stuff she needed to make a home cooked meal for their date tonight.

"I mean, you don't look like those spoiled rich brats, flashing their expensive outfits and jewels, driving around with ridiculously expensive cars. You are here, in your kitchen, wearing your apron, making dinner for your girlfriend, not hiring some fancy chef from some fancy 4 star restaurant to cook for us."

Callie stopped slicing the tomatoes and looked up to stare at the woman with a smile. "Girlfriend, huh? So I am making dinner for my girlfriend?"

Arizona froze realizing what she just said, her lips slowly turning into a smile. "Well, I don't know about you, but I plan to make you my girlfriend, and I'd say you already are… so yeah, I am your girlfriend."

The Latina put down the knife, grabbed a towel to wipe her hands clean while walking around the breakfast bar towards her new girlfriend. Stepping in the blonde's personal space, she placed her hands on either side of Arizona´s lap, and looked lovingly into the blue eyes, "I like the sound of that." Their lips met leisurely.

Arizona wrapped her arms around Callie's neck, there was no hurry in this kiss, they cherished each other's lips slowly, as if touching the most precious porcelain in the world, love conveyed through their lips and neither of them wanted to let go.

However, the buzz from the kitchen timer popped their little bubble. Callie pulled away slightly and whispered to the blonde "I should get back to the dinner, don't want to starve my girlfriend."

But Arizona didn't let go, she even brought her legs up around the Latina's hips, "I don't need food when I have you in my arms."

"Sweet talker… but I don't want to burn the rolls." Callie pecked pink lips one more time; then tried to wiggle away from the blonde, but the woman just tightened her grip. "Arizona, let me go, I have to take out the bread from the oven." She just locked her limbs firmer and the dimpled smile went wider on her face.

Realizing that she wasn´t getting out of the lock so easily, to Arizona's surprise, Callie leaned down to put her lips against the cream crook of the neck in front of her…

"Ouch… you bit me?!" Arizona jumped and loosened her grip; the biter took the chance to run towards the oven to save the rolls.

"That should teach you a lesson." Callie smirked.

"What lesson? That my girlfriend is a biter?" The blonde faked an angry look while rubbing the mark left on her neck.

"Yes, I bite, prepare yourself."

"Oh, can't wait." Arizona picked up her glass and took a sip wine to clear her thoughts. "How is the thing in New York going? Did the lawyer… get the thing settled?"

Callie didn't stop the tasks in hand, "They said George rejected the idea of getting an annulment, so we are facing a divorce. The lawyer already filed the application, but it seems the whole thing is much more complicated than I thought."

"He refused to sign the divorce papers?"

"Yup." Callie turned off the stove and started to serve the food.

"Have you… talked to him? Tried to convince him?" Arizona really tried to act cool, but the way she finished her glass of wine so quickly said it all.

"No I haven't, I haven't contact him myself since I left the apartment that evening." She walked over to the dining table with two plates in hand, returned to pick up the basket of rolls and a bottle of wine. "Come on, let's drop the topic and eat."

"I just hope that can be settled soon, then we can all move on." Arizona followed her to the dining table with her empty glass in hand, and sat down with a pout on her face.

Callie refilled the glass before she sat down next to the blonde, and tried to kiss the pout away. "If you decide to keep that pout on your pretty face, I am going to blow off the candles and take my plate to the couch. I could eat my dinner with the TV by myself."

"I just…."

"I know, but that is not an ideal topic during a candle light dinner. Now show me your enchanting dimples, and let me tell you how lovely you look tonight." Callie took her girlfriend's hand to kiss it tenderly and leaned in to kiss her lips when she saw the blonde´s dimpled smile appear.

"No Meyer, listen to me, I don't care how much this is going to cost me, I just want this to be over, and soon. Of course this is not easy, you do know how much you charge me right? Glad you remember that, because if you think this is too much for you and you are unable to do the work, I can take my business elsewhere, you could save your time to work on some easier clients."

Even though she acted so nonchalant in front of Arizona, deep down she wanted this to be settled as soon as possible so that she could put her mistake behind.

There's was a knock on the door and Callie stood up from the couch to get it.

"Hey Mark, come on in, just give me a second." Callie gestured Mark to take a seat and then continued to talk on the phone.

"Oh my God, are you kidding me? I gave you my bottom line in the very beginning, what was that? Right, I do not want to deal with it myself. Seriously, do not waste my time, if you can't … Really, ok, that's your word. Fine, I have to go, keep in touch."

Callie threw her mobile on the table with frustration and let out an angry groan, she walked towards the couch and flopped herself on it, next to Mark.

The man wrapped an arm around the defeated woman. "Still working on the divorce?"

"Yeah…" Callie rested her head on Mark's shoulder, closed her eyes and took a deep breathed to smooth her rage over the useless lawyer.

"Is there anything I can do?"

"Turn back the time and beat the shit out of me before I went to Vegas."

"Or I should marry you before Bambi, it will be my pleasure to divorce you, I have no problem taking spouse support."

"Or go back even earlier, tell me to drag Malena to have a body check."

They sat like that for a while, both in their own thoughts.

"You know, we´ve avoided her name or the subject for a very long time. I'm glad that we can talk about her now."

"She was an important part of my life, I just… wasn't ready to talk about her, it was like… the less I mentioned her, the less I missed her."

"And now you are." It was more a statement than a question.

When there was no reply from the woman in his arms, Mark pulled away slightly to look her in the eyes, who looked back at him with a blank expression.

"Callie, do you still have doubts… about Arizona?"

"I… want to say no, but… it's scary, you know. I had Malena's love, and even until now I still don't know why she loved me. I was a mess when she met me, remember? And she… she was the most amazing, caring, remarkably gorgeous woman, she could get anyone buried in her wake, but she chose me. And now, I got a second chance to be with an equally wonderful, beautiful woman, what if… what if… I am not good enough? She could leave me when she realize she is too good for me, I don't deserve her."

"Callie Torres you are crazy! How many times do I have to tell you this? Don't sell yourself short, you have no idea how good you are, sometimes I wish you would just see yourself the way we do. With that much shit that happened to you all those years, I don't think you understand how hard it is to stay true to who you are. But you did, you were always yourself, you fought, you loved… maybe you lost too, but you still can walk tall Torres."

Blue eyes looked deep into brown ones, with nothing but sincerity. "Yes, Malena was gorgeous, Arizona is stunning, but do you know how hot you are? You have the whole package!"

Mark's voice dramatically raised an octave making the Latina chuckle, she gently placed a kiss on his cheek.

"Thank you, Mark." Callie got up from the couch and walked towards the kitchen. "Hey, what are you doing here anyway?"

"Had nothing to do, came by to see if you wanted to hang out, grab lunch or something." The man leaned back on the couch after he picked up a magazine from the coffee table. "How come you have a medical journal in here?"

"You come knocking on my door and assume I don't have any plans?"

"Well, do you? I met with Blondie this morning, she told me you don't have anything special to do today, and she said it would be great if we spend some time together, since she'd been real busy lately." Mark called out from the couch.

"By the way, I'm surprised she went back to her apartment" he continued "I thought she would spend the night, you kicked her out or she didn't want to stay?" He asked jokingly, but Callie was totally stunned by his observation.

"So what, you spy on us now?" She said timidly, avoiding eye contact. Sometimes she hated that Mark could read her easily, and there was something she wasn't ready to share with the nosy man yet.

However, Mark knew the woman too well. He stood and went to sit on the stool by the breakfast bar, eyeing the Latina without saying anything, yet.

"Arizona and I are taking it slow, ok? I am still married, I don't want to be a cheater and I don't want to make her _the other woman_, so no, we haven't have sex yet." Callie lowered her voice to a whisper.

"Why are you whispering?" Mark picked up an apple from the counter, but Callie snatched it away before he could put it in his mouth.

"Cristina's here, your Chief forced her to take a couple days off, don't really know what she did to deserve that. Anyway, I have her custody until Meredith's off work."

"Custody?" The man smirked.

"She's in her dark place, I promised Meredith to keep an eye on her, otherwise she will probably stuff herself with nothing but cereal. I'm making her lunch, you wanna eat with us?" Callie handed the apple to her friend after rinsing it under the water, and started to prepare lunch.

"Sure. What's the deal with them anyway? Hunt isn't much better, he runs the ER like a freaking military academy these days. Lexie said he already made four interns cried."

"I think they are trying couples therapy, hope that can help." Callie said while she was fumbling around the fridge, she got carry away during grocery shop last night when she thought about making dinner for her girlfriend, now her fridge was overstocked and she couldn't find the things she wanted.

"Back to you and Robbins, what the hell are you talking about? You want to wait until your divorce's finalized? Even though it could take two years?"

"Mark… I haven't really thought about how to deal with it yet, for the moment I just hope George backs off and signs the damn papers, I am pressuring Meyer to get it done. Or else, I should get a better lawyer."Callie finally turned around and threw boxes of foods on the counter top with frustration. She leaned against the counter with both hands on its edge and looked at Mark, the man was looking at her with a lopsided smile.

"And Blondie is OK with it… huh?" One of the merits about Mark was that he wasn't fake, his sneer said that he didn't think this was a good idea. Now Callie felt stupid.

"We talked about this, she's on board." The brunette said in a small voice.

"And as long as she doesn't force you to settle it, you'll just let it slide… Until she flips."

"Of course not…" She answered in an even smaller voice.

"To me it seems like that. As I just overheard you on the phone, you haven't talk to Bambi yet, you didn't really do anything except forcing Meyer to get Bambi to agree on the divorce." Mark sneered again. "You know the problem is not the lawyer, you need someone to convince George, and you know there's only one person who can do the job."

The Latina stopped her task of chopping the potatoes. Mark got to the point that she really didn't wanted to get.

"You're afraid of facing him, that's why you're trying to wait until Blondie can't stand it anymore, as long as she is ok with _taking it slow_, you don't have to get in touch with Bambi. You are avoiding him." Mark shook his head while biting on his apple.

"I ruined his life, I don't know how to face him." She put down the knife and looked Mark in the eyes.

"He deserves closure." The blue eyes man shrugged.

"I know." Callie picked up the knife again, tried to divert her frustration into dicing the vegetables on the cutting board.

"Do you want me to go talk to him?" Mark said it so sincerely, but the Latina couldn't help to laugh.

"Mark, sending someone he's afraid of won't really help my situation, don't even think about it, I don't want you to interfere, even though you mean good, but please don't." Callie shook her head but still had a grin on her face, that would be fun, but not for George.

Mark smirked, remembering how he used to abash George in the past.

"You can count on me if you need any help, you know that right?"

Callie gave him a smile as a reply, then they stayed in silence until she finished cooking.

Callie passed a plate to Mark, put another one on the empty spot then walked towards Cristina's room.

"Cristina? Lunch is ready." She knocked on the door and then waited for a response. "Cristina?"

"You don't have to yell, I'm still alive." The door cracked open, a sourpuss looking Asian woman stepped out of the room and strode to the kitchen.

"What are you doing here Sloan?"

"Hello to you too Yang, I'm here for lunch."

The three sat side by side, every now and then Callie and Mark chit chatting about their jobs and life, Cristina was just poking at the salad that Callie made her.

"Umm… Callie, do you have to work tonight?"

The other two stopped their conversation and turned to her.

"Yeah, I do. What? You wanna come to play a little bartending?"

"Can you give me a ride after lunch? I need to go… to Owen's to pick up something, I don't want to drive."

"Sure." Callie answered sincerely.

"Do you need a hand?" Mark asked before he took a sip of his water.

"Just the ride would be alright."

Sensing that maybe it would be better not to tag along, Mark excused himself when the two women left to the old fire station.

The ride there was quiet, none of them said anything, Cristina just stared out the window.

When they arrived to the destination, Cristina made no attempt to get out of the car, Callie just turned off the engine and leaned back, not urging the other woman to do anything.

After a couple minutes, Cristina turned her head to look at the house where she and her husband lived together not long ago.

"He is going to sell the place." Cristina said in a flat tone. "Three weeks ago he asked me what I wanted to do with the house… I bought the house because he liked this stupid old fire station, and he thought I should be the one to keep it. I told him he can decide because I don't want to deal with it."

Callie didn't say anything, just followed Cristina's gaze to the old fire station.

"Two days ago during counseling, he told me he was going to sell it, and that he's moving to a smaller place. Told me that I should come over to see if there is anything I left behind, things I may want to keep, otherwise he'll donate them."

Another few minutes of silence, Cristina shifted her gaze to look at Callie for the first time since she got in the car.

"How can someone just throw a marriage away like this? Like it doesn't matter at all?"

"Different people have different reasons." Callie answered after thinking about it for a while, she ran her hands over her hair. "Sometimes it's because love is too deep, sometimes it's because love isn't enough anymore."

"During the session, he told me, in front of the shrink, that he loves me so much it hurts. I don't get it, if he still loves me, why is he selling our home and ending our marriage?" Cristina said sullenly, she tried to understand it but after days of racking her brains, she got nothing.

"Cristina," The Latina moved so she could sit facing the upset woman. "You were the first one to move out, you left your husband. Of course you had your reasons, but to him, it seemed like you were the first one to give up."

Cristina looked at the woman in front of her with a blank look.

"I… was trying to get some space, I didn't know what I want." She frowned.

"He didn't know that, did you talk to him?" No response. "He loves you so much that he's willing to do whatever you want, including end the marriage so you could be happy without him."

"But I am not asking for a divorce..." Glazed small eyes looked into brown. Callie wanted to put a hand on the shoulder of the confused woman to give her strength, but she knew how the other thought about invading personal space, so she just simply continued.

"Things don't go the way you want them to, ever. I envy you, Cristina. I wish my husband would be willing to sign the divorce papers. I'm stuck, I want to put that behind me, but he refuses to give that to me. You are lucky, if ending this marriage is what you want."

"I… don't know. I still love him, but I don't know how we can start again." Cristina let out a heavy sigh, she looked up to stare at the place she once called home, with the man she loved.

"You're still going to counseling, right?"

"Yeah." The Asian nodded her head slowly.

"Talk to each other, communicate, that may help." After she finished the sentence, Callie couldn't help but to burst into laughter.

"What's so funny?" Cristina frowned at Callie anxiously.

"I told you to talk to your husband, but I'm paying good money to a useless lawyer just to make sure I don't have to talk to mine."

Cristina raised an eyebrow, staring at the still guffawing woman. "You… take your time, I'll go up to grab my things, be back in a few."

After Cristina got out of the car, Callie took several deep breaths to calm herself and started to think about the advice she just gave Cristina.

Half an hour later, Cristina came back with nothing in her hands, Callie didn't ask anything and drove them back to Horizon.

Meredith came by to pick up her twisted sister at 4:00pm for a girls night out. Callie had to work, but instead, she told Joe that she might need a couple hours to settle something.

_You got to do what you got to do._

She picked up her phone, and making sure to set hide the caller ID so her phone number would stay anonymous, she dialed the call.

"This is O'Malley."

"Hi George." Callie breathed out.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, I just borrowed the name of the characters for entertaining, no intention to violate any copyrights.

A/N : Credit to my amazing beta Pha, you are super!

* * *

Chapter 13

"Hi George." Callie breathed out.

"Callie! Callie! My god! Where are you?"

"I… need you to sign the paper."

"I need to see you, tell me where you are, I'll come over right away."

"George, please listen to me. Just sign the papers Meyer gave you, ok?"

"Callie, let's work this out, we don't need to divorce, every married couple has their ups and downs, we just hit our bumps, we can get through this together."

"What we had was a mistake, I am so sorry I let it happened, I am really sorry. Please, just sign the divorce papers; then we can go our separate ways."

"No Callie, I love you, please don't leave me. Tell me where you are, give me your contact number, this stupid phone couldn't show your number. Give me one more chance to show you I love you, we can work this out Callie, you are my wife, I love you."

A headache was forming in her head, Callie held up her hand to rub her left temple.

"Oh please George, why don't you get it? What we had was a drunken mistake, I was in a bad shape, I shouldn't have taken you as a rebound, it was not fair to you…"

"Do you know what's not fair to me? My wife disappearing on me, that´s not fair to me. This is a marriage Callie, it's two of us in this marriage and in God's eyes you are my wife, I am in love with you, please let's give it a try, ok?"

"George, why don't you get it? I never felt the same for you, I am really sorry but you have to understand, this shouldn't have happened in the first place, we shouldn't have got together, we shouldn't have got married. Let's move on, please, just please sign the papers."

"I will not sign anything until I see you, Callie. You forgot our love because we haven't seen each other for months, please give me another chance. I'll come over right away."

"Oh my God, love won't be forgotten if it's real love... I feel like talking to a brick wall. Listen, sign it or not, I don't care, I give up. I can still get a divorce without your consent, may take us a year or two, I don't care anymore. Goodbye George."

"Wait wait wait Callie, please wait…"

"I said what I wanted to say, you said what you wanted to say, we are done. Bye."

Callie threw the mobile on the couch with frustration, with her head leaned against the back of the couch she rubbed her face with both hands. She was slapping herself mentally, how could she found someone so stubborn and so crazy to marry her in the first place? She really didn't know.

The brunette nearly jumped out of her seat when the phone started to ring, she picked it up with a shaky hand but couldn't help to smile when she found out who was calling. There was no way George could find her number and called back, she affirmed to herself.

"Hey." The voice of angel came from the other side of the phone.

"Hey yourself, how was your day?"

"Busy. Already had two back to back surgeries, now I´m waiting for Bailey to have another meeting about the clinic. How was yours?"

"Well, I had lunch with Mark and Cristina at home, then drove Cristina to Owen's to pick up her things."

"Oh, how is she?"

"The same, I guess, we had a little talk. She's out with Meredith for the night. How is the clinic going? Any progress?"

"I checked the renovation this morning, it should be finished in a couple days. We are going to settle some administration arrangements, then the place will be up and running in no time."

"Great, that means I'll have more time with my girlfriend or I´ll have to share you with more sick kids? I really don't want to have to make a kid, and make it sick all the time so that I could steal some time with you, you know."

"Oh my God, that would make you the world's most horrible mother. But speaking of which, I do have several patients always coming back to me, maybe their makers are thinking the same." Arizona said with a chuckle.

"Ok, now I want names." Callie said in a serious tone that made the other woman laughed harder.

"I have to go, Dr. Bailey is giving me the glare, gotta go to the meeting. Talk to you later?"

"Don't forget the names I need. Bye."

"Bye Callie."

She smiled to the phone in her hand, Arizona felt warmth spread in her heart. It had been a long time since she had a girlfriend, even thought they were not in the intimate level of the relationship yet, and that was killing her sometimes, having Callie as her girlfriend was the best thing in the world.

"Dr. Robbins, sorry to disturb your daydream, but I am afraid we can't start the meeting without you, are you coming?" The very irritating Miranda Bailey poked her head out from the conference room to call out for Arizona.

"So sorry Dr. Bailey, I´m coming."

As soon as Arizona sat down on the far end of the conference table, Miranda started to talk.

"Ok, thanks everyone, let's start. The agenda for today… First, about the clinic itself, this morning Dr. Robbins, Nurse Hathaway and myself checked with the contractor Mr. Graham, as he promised, the renovation is about to be finished in two days. He will have his team clean up the place afterwards and schedule sterilization as well."

"Does this mean the clinic can be open in a week?" Jennings, who represented the board was also in this meeting.

"Yes Mr. Jennings." Miranda casted him a Bailey glare and then continued. "As I just said, the clinic is almost ready to be open. I already informed the medical suppliers to make the delivery four days afterwards."

Everyone on the table nodded, pleased with the information.

"And about the staff arrangement, thanks to the support from Seattle Grace, we could have access with two in-house surgical residents and their interns, and four nurses in 12 hours shift each."

"Only when they are free, you can't pull them out from the surgery they are taking part in." The Chief said in a hurry.

"You don't have to worry about that, Chief." Miranda rolled her eyes. "Even though Dr. Robbins and I are appointed to handle the clinic, with the workload of the Head of Pediatric Surgery and the attending of general surgery, we won't have enough time to manage the routine day by day. Also, we can't fully depend on the hospital, so the clinic will hire a full time physician and two nurses."

"You are hiring, from outside?" The Chief asked.

"Yes, we already received some resumes, Dr. Robbins and I will study them and set up interviews, Nurse Hathaway, as the Chief Nurse, will take part of the nurse hiring. But we won't have to wait for the new hires, since we have the support from the hospital, the clinic can be opened in a week to ten days."

"So does it mean you and Dr. Robbins are not the ones to run the clinic day by day?" Jennings intercepted Miranda again. "You know Mr. Anderson instructed specifically that he wants you two to run the place, that was the condition, remember? Dr. Robbins?"

Arizona jerked from the sudden attention from Jennings, these old habits won't be gone in a day.

"Yes sir." She answered in a small voice, took a deep breath then continued in her normal voice. "Mr. Jennings, we would have liked to get more time to work at the clinic but we couldn't. Our priority should be the daily work at the hospital, and we found the solution. The full time physician will be the proxy of Dr. Bailey and me to work at the clinic, we will have a weekly report and monthly meeting including Nurse Hathaway. The three of us will oversee the operating and be on call in all time."

"And we ran the idea with Mrs. Anderson over the phone last week, she is positive with this arrangement." Miranda jumped in the conversation, the PEDS surgeon gave her a thankful glance.

"Sounds great." As soon as they ensured him that the idea was approved by the donor, Jennings sank back to his seat and focused on his mobile.

As explained by Miranda, this meeting was gonna be the last one before the opening, they had to go through every detail and explain every decision to everyone who partook in the meeting. Involuntarily, the meeting lasted three hours and it could have been longer if Jennings didn't insisted on cutting it short.

"I can't believe we did it, Miranda." Arizona said to the woman who stayed behind in the conference room with her.

"It's not opened yet, so we haven't _done it _yet." Miranda was running around the table to pick up the files and folders, she kept a serious face but the ghost of smile played around her lips.

"In ten days." Arizona just managed to smother a big yawn with a hand. "Sorry, I´m exhausted."

"When was the last time you took some days off?"

"Don't remember, after Wallace, I guess." She let out another big yawn.

"Of course you are exhausted, sick kids were like choosing to come to you, all at the same time." After gathering the files, Miranda sat on the opposite of the conference table.

"You know what, most of the administer jobs were settled, the only thing we have to do together is hiring. You go take a few days, relax and then come back to work you ass off for the opening, what do you say?"

"No, I can't leave you to do the work alone." Arizona exclaimed.

"Yes, you can and you will. You were the reason we got this clinic, take the holiday as a thank you gift from me." Miranda nodded to Arizona, then got up to leave the room.

"Hey, do you want to get a drink? As celebration?" Arizona followed.

"Are you buying?"

"We are going to my girlfriend's pub, I don't plan to pay for anything." The PEDS surgeon smirked and patted the shorter woman's shoulder.

"Umm… Callie, I ordered a rum and coke light, but I couldn't taste any rum in this one." Jennifer, a usual customer pulled the bartender out of her thoughts.

"Sorry, I'll get you another one."

"Something's wrong? You seem kinda off tonight." Jennifer propped her elbow against the counter top, rested her chin on her palm and smiled to Callie. If the body language didn't scream seduction enough, the tight blouse without the top three buttons said it all.

"I'm fine, just a bit tired."

"Oh you poor baby, didn't sleep well? Not used to the wet and cold winter in Seattle? Maybe you could use a body warmer in bed, could keep you warm through the night."

Being a bartender for so long, of course Callie would know when she was being hit on, but now she was just too distract to react.

"No, I slept well, thanks. And the weather is not so bad, I like the cold, sometimes I even open the window during the day." She put the new drink in front of the flirty woman. "The heater in my room works well, so yet, I slept well."

"So… you don't have a body warmer, huh?" Jennifer's eyebrow rose up.

"What is a body warmer?"

Jennifer leaned forward, beckoning Callie to come close to her. When their heads were just few centimeters away from each other, Jennifer looked into the brown eyes and licked her lips seductively.

"You know, a body in bed to keep your warm and satisfy. Do you wanna try one tonight?"

A bang on the counter top made the two women jumped.

Looking at the source of the sound, Callie grinned when she found her girlfriend there, two seats away from Jennifer.

"Hey, you are here." The bartender leaned forward as far as she could to try to kiss her girlfriend on the other side of the counter top, but the blonde just gave her a featherlike peck.

"Yeah, sorry I didn't call first."

"You don't have to call in advance, you are always welcomed. Hello Miranda."

"Hi Callie, are we coming in a bad time?"

"What are you talking about?" Callie frowned with the question, hands busy fixing the drinks for her friends.

"Here you go, vodka tonic for you Miranda. And this one, Manhattan with extra cherries for my girl." The bartender put down the glass in front of Arizona with a hearty smile, but the woman still hadn't returned the glance.

Callie looked at Miranda with wide-eyes, silently asking for help. The shorter woman chanced a glance to the woman who was flirting with Callie earlier.

Realization kicked in. Callie leaned forward again, this time she used both hands to grab Arizona's face for a passionate kiss. Everyone around the bar top witnessed it. She meant for everyone to witness it.

When the kiss stopped, Callie pulled away slightly to look at the blonde, who looked back at her in the eyes, biting her lip to hide the smirk on her face.

"Can you come to the back, I need to talk to you." Callie whispered to her girlfriend. "Joe, cover me, ok?"

As soon as the two women were alone in the back office, lips found each other again. Callie held the PEDS surgeon against the wall, hands instantly flying to Arizona's firm ass.

Even though they agreed on going slow, they were still human, it was getting harder and harder to keep their hands away from inappropriate places, or grind against each other.

They broke the kiss for air, Arizona nuzzled the crook of her girlfriend's neck, inhaled deeply the unique scent from the body wrapping her. The intimacy made the taller woman let out a soft moan and tightened the hold of her arms.

A light chuckle came out from the blonde, Callie pulled away a little to look down to her girlfriend, who returned a naughty smile.

"Did you know that every time when we made out, your hands end up on my butt?"

"What can I say? It´s a good butt." Callie laughed and squeezed her hands to amplify her point.

"Yours not too bad either." Arizona smacked Callie's hip lightly and waltzed away from her hold.

"You said you needed to talk to me, was that an excuse to lure me here, so you could have your way with me, Miss Torres?"

"Well, I really need to talk to you, but jealous you were just so hot that I couldn't keep my hands off you." Callie sat on the edge of her desk, and smiled when Arizona came to stand in front of her.

"I wasn't jealous."

"You were and it was totally hot." Callie whispered before she closed the distance between their lips. This kiss was not as hungry as the previous one, their tongues danced against each other slowly, savoring the moment.

"I have something to tell you though. Miranda gave me a great gift…" Arizona said after pulled away from the kiss.

"A pony?" Callie grinned.

"Do you want a pony?"

"No, I want a unicorn."

Arizona rolled her eyes and then continued.

"As I was saying, Miranda gave me a gift, she released me from clinic duties until it opens in ten days, well five to six days precisely because we will have to interview people we need to hire. I talked to the Chief, he gave me a five day holiday, I just have to go back to the hospital tomorrow morning to reschedule some work and then I'm free."

"That is great. Do you have any plans in mind?" Callie beamed.

"I was wondering…"

"You know what? Let's go to LA. The beach, the sun, you in a bikini, me putting sunscreen on you… Wait, you do want to go on a holiday with me?"

"Of course I do, that's why I am asking you, you moron." Arizona kissed her girl one more time. "We should get out of here, I dragged Miranda to celebrate the almost ready clinic, she will kill me if I leave her out there alone for too long."

"Ok, we'll talk about our plans later, I do have something to tell you too."

The two walked out from the back hand in hand, matching smiles showing everyone how happy they were together.

"Hey it took you long enough to come back, I was about to get up and leave." Miranda said coldly.

"Sorry Miranda, we were just…" Callie tried to explained, but Miranda cut her off.

"Nah, I don't need to know your business behind the closed door."

"No Miranda, I was just telling Callie about the holiday, we will leave for LA. So, this is the last chance, are you sure it's OK for me to go away for five days?"

"I told you, the last important duty we have to do is hire staff. We already received some resumes, I'll study them and set up interviews after you return. The hard part is over."

"Here here," Miranda raised her glass. "To our clinic."

"To Wallace." Arizona clinked her glass.

"To Arizona." Callie picked up a shot of tequila to join the two women, the blonde shoot a shy smile to her girlfriend, and Miranda echoed the bartender. "To Arizona."

"To my mother." Joe quickly picked up a bottle of beer and joined the toast, earning glares from the three women. "What? I am not allowed to drink to my mother?"

They all laughed together and finished their drinks after Callie playfully punched him on the arm.

After a couple more drinks, Miranda excused herself as she still had a full day of work waiting for her the next day. Arizona wanted to spend more time with her girlfriend but the yawns gave her away.

"Honey you´re tired, wanna call it the night?" Callie put her hand over the blonde's on the table.

"But I wanna stay with you, we still have to talk about the holiday, and you said you have something to tell me."

It broke Callie's heart to see exhaustion written all over the blonde's face but she didn't want Arizona to leave yet.

"How about you stay the night at my place? Now you go up to take a bath, relax and get yourself comfortable. I'll come up a little later as soon as Joe has finished his break, and I´ll tell him about the holiday I'm going to take. Half an hour tops, ok?"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am sure. My collection of bath salts and oils are in the cabinet next to the hamper, feel free to use the towels, the night clothes are in the second drawer of the rosewood chest you made me bought. Hmm… don't open the first drawer, my panties and bras are in there."

Arizona cocked her head to ask with her eyes one more time.

"Cristina is not coming back tonight, you'll have the whole apartment to yourself until I get there, now go." Callie picked up a single key from under the bar and handed it to Arizona.

They shared a peck then Arizona stood up from the stool about to leave.

"Arizona," Callie called out. "that key… umm… it's a spare… I umm… put it here… If you want… you know… you can… keep it, only if you want to…"

A broad dimpled smile found the way to the PEDS surgeon's face.

"I'd love to keep the spare key to your apartment."


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, I just borrowed the name of the characters for entertaining, no intention to violate any copyrights.

A/N : Thanks for the support and the encouraging words, this is an interesting experience, I enjoy writing every chapter of it. Ok, I found it sounds like a goodbye... No, it's not ;-)  
Special thanks to my marvelous beta Pha, glad to have you help me fixing this story.

* * *

Chapter 14

"Arizona?" Callie called when she entered the quiet apartment, the lights in the living room were on but no one was there, it was about 45 minutes after she sent Arizona up here.

Callie spent some time talking to Joe about some arrangements for the pub, weeks ago they had spoken about having a third bartender so they, especially Callie, could work in more flexible hours. But since Arizona was so busy that she didn't have much time to be with the Latina, having the extra help wasn't so urgent yet.

Well, now it was. Even though Joe assured her that he had no problem handling the bar himself for five days, ten hours straight, Callie still didn't want to overtired her best employee, he deserved a life too.

They went over the file of the interviewees and picked out three of them, Joe would call them and see who could start to work right away. In the worse circumstances, as Callie instructed, they could always just lock up the place. Or put Cristina in the spot for a couple hours – she had bugged both Callie and Joe to give her another try for weeks.

Walking down the hallway, she found that her bedroom door was open. She gently knocked on her own bedroom door before stepped in, no one was in sight but she could hear music coming from the ensuite bathroom. She put her ear against the frosted glass door and smiled when she smelled the scent of her favorite lavender oil and heard a soft hum along with the music.

"Arizona? You ok in there? Do you need anything?"

"I'm great, thanks." The blonde answered with a soft voice. "Company would be fantastic though." She giggled when a dry cough came from the other side of the door.

"It's tempting, but I'll pass this time, you take your time." Even though Callie was dying to share the bath with Arizona, there was still a line they haven't cross yet. Unfortunately, being naked and wet in a bath was on the other side of the line.

In the bathroom, Arizona was soaking in a tub of amazing lavender essential oil. When she opened the cabinet of bath salts collection Callie told her to, she was stunned of how many choices were in there. But it didn't take her a lot to pick this one, from time to time she could smell a hint of lavender from the brunette, not the same as her fruity shampoo, or the vanilla body wash. So when she opened the bottle, she knew this was the one she wanted.

She closed her eyes and relaxed in the tub, she couldn't help to wonder how it would feel to have a certain Latina there, sitting in front of her, laying back against her chest, resting the head on her shoulder so she could nuzzled that long neck and her hands would fondle those swelling flesh with a gentle touch… She took a deep breath to calm herself; it was going to be a long tortuous night.

Arizona came out of the bathroom wearing a T-shirt and a boxer from Callie's second drawer, she found that her girl was not in the bedroom but on the couch in the living room, wearing a boxer too, busy clicking on the laptop.

"I was waiting for you in the tub." Arizona pouted before pecking the brunette's lips.

"Ha ha, very funny." She glanced at the woman who flopped next to her on the couch, unconsciously licking her lips when she saw the cream legs in those short shorts. Then she turned her attention back to the computer. "I took a shower in the guest bathroom, didn't want to disturb you."

"What are you doing?" The blonde sat closer to Callie so that she could see the screen.

"I'm checking the flight schedules, we have several choices for afternoon flights. I'm thinking we should take the 2:30 flight, then we can be there for dinner. I really want to take you to La Botte, I like it so much, I used to go at least four times a week when I stayed in LA…" Callie could feel her heartbeat increasing, she secretly cursed herself for getting so worked up just because Arizona was sitting close to her, freshly bathed Arizona, hot and sexy Arizona…

"Sounds perfect." Arizona pulled her legs up on the couch and rested her head on Callie's shoulder.

"You smell good, lavender is my favorite." Callie kissed the blonde's head and took the chance to breathe in the scent of the woman, she wondered how come the usual relaxing lavender smell could be so erotic when it came from the blonde.

"I like it too. Are you sure you are ok to leave so suddenly? How about the pub?"

"Joe and I talked about hiring one more barkeep, so that we could have more free time during the week. Joe is going to contact someone tomorrow and if everything goes well, the new bartender would start tomorrow or the day after tomorrow." Callie shut the laptop and put it away. "Wait, why did you ask that? Are you having second thoughts about going on a vacation with me? I know it's a big step and we've not been together for a long time…"

"Shhh…" A finger pressed to plump lips to stop the mumble. "I asked because that's what a good girlfriend would do, I´m just concern about everything regarding you. I don't want you to worry about the pub when we are sipping cocktails on the beach. Especially, because I dragged you away all of the sudden, I don't want you to blame me if anything happens at home." Arizona smiled when the brunette took her hand and kissed her palm.

"I'll never blame you for anything." Callie swallowed hard when she saw sparkling blue iris turning a darker shade, she closed the distance between their waiting lips, nibbling pink lips in an unhurried way.

The soft touch eventually turned to a much hotter kiss, Arizona leaned back on the couch, bringing Callie along to lie on top of her. Lips locked, tongues tangled, hands roamed around everywhere, hips ground against each other, naked legs entwined… It wasn't the first time they made out on the couch like horny teenagers but the thin layer of sleeping clothes made their arousal reached a much higher level and, without noticing, their hands had passed the boundary they had set up secretly.

With her lips gently sucking the blonde's pulse point, Callie's hand snaked under her shirt and was kneading the way up to a breast she was dying to touch. A moan escaped from parted pink lips, it was like adding fuel to the brunette's internal fire.

But, instead of going further north, the hand pulled away. Callie gave the pulse point a last nip then went up to kiss pink lips one more time.

"I need to tell you something." She said while pulling away, hovering over the woman underneath her.

Snapping out of the arousal haze, the panting blonde lightly pushed the body above her away.

"I´m sorry Callie, I… got carry away…" But she was cut off by another kiss.

After their lips parted, Callie sat straight and then Arizona mirrored her awkwardly. Still smiling, Callie laced their hands together, kissed them and rested them on her chest above her heart.

"I need to tell you something. I know we talked about this, _I_ said that we should wait to take the next step until my divorce was final."

Arizona bit her lips and nodded, she was about to tell Callie that she was ok with that, even though all she could think about right now was taking off that red tank top in front of her that hide the girls that she really, really, really wanted to meet.

But the brunette continued, "That was a stupid idea. It is unfair to me, and is unfair to you."

"No Callie, that's fine." Arizona frowned confuse, she really had no idea where this conversation was heading to.

"Are you kidding me? This is not fine. We are grown women, we have needs and obviously we are attracted to each other. Are you telling me you don't want to have sex with me?" Callie sighed heavily, "Jesus… I really want to touch you, Arizona."

"No, of course I want to. It´s killing me, but…" Arizona whispered.

"I called George today."

"What? Why?" Arizona stared at her girlfriend with wide eyes, she knew very well that Callie was avoiding calling her soon-to-be-ex husband. It was frustrating for her to see that there would have been no progress as long as the brunette refused to contact the man, but it was Callie's choice, she couldn't force her girlfriend to do what she didn't want to do.

"Because I can't wait to start a new life with you, Arizona." Still holding fair hands, Callie lowered them and slowly stroked them with her thumbs. "I talked to Cristina this afternoon and she made me realized I should have talked to him, not through the lawyer, I should give him the closure that he deserves."

"And…?" Arizona was so nervous that she didn't realize she was holding her breath.

Thinking back to the conversation with George, Callie couldn't help to chuckle. "Don't get me wrong, George is a nice man, really, he has a soft heart and he's caring and adorable, but he also is incredibly stubborn. I kept telling him that our marriage was a mistake, but he just told me he loved me and asked me to give it another try. It was like talking to a brick wall, I couldn't take it anymore so I just hung up."

"I can totally picture you throwing the phone away." Arizona chuckled along when she saw brown eyes rolled.

She leaned forward to peck pink lips again, Callie kept stroking the hands in hers. "I don't know if you noticed but you totally saved the day. You called me right after I threw the phone on the couch."

"I did?" Arizona raised her eyebrow in surprise and grinned like a fool when the brunette nodded.

"Yes, you did. It was like you knew I needed to hear your voice." Callie breathed out, she still remembered how the anger and frustration vanished at the moment she heard that perky "_Hey"_.

"Then, what are you going to do?" The blonde retracted one of her hands, held it up to caress the beaming face in front of her. Callie closed her eyes and leaned against the touch.

"I am not going to try to convince George anymore, I might have to wait for two years to be legally divorced, but I am not going to hold back what I want to do with you, I can't stop moving on because he thought I would change my mind, which I know very well that I won't."

Callie reached a hand to the back of Arizona's neck and pulled her close, she captured her lips with her own, both moaning with the passion that Callie put in this kiss.

They rested their foreheads against each other after breaking the kiss, brown eyes looked into blue with nothing but sincerity, "I love you, Arizona Robbins."

"You do?" A stunning dimpled smile slowly forming on her face.

"Yes, I´m so in love with you Arizona." She ducked her head to connect their lips again, Callie slipped her tongue between parted pink lips, moaning when it found a partner tangled with hers.

They resumed their lustful desire with much more passion, they both knew there was no turning or holding back. A fair hand went straight to the sweetly curved mound under the red tank top, fondled it with tender caresses, causing another moan from the Latina, Arizona swallowed it while suckling the muscle invading her mouth.

She just had a tank top on her but Callie found the temperature increasing to an unbearably high, she pulled away to take off her top in a split second, then reattached to pink lips and pulled the woman up from the couch, fumbling their way towards the bedroom. By the time they landed on Callie's bed, both of them were just a boxer away from being totally naked.

Rolling on top of the Latina, Arizona ran her hands through raven hair, clearing a path to nibble her earlobe and neck. Soft moans came out from plump lips when ivory hands traveled up and down her torso and finally reached the peak, thumb brushing against the harden nipple, sending electric shocks through a tanned body.

A warm mouth found the way to the other peak, Callie arched her back while a tongue licked and circled the tip, low husky moans came out when Arizona captured it and sucked. The groan urged the blonde to go on, after giving the same attention to the other swelling flesh, hot kisses went lower and lower and stopped above the waist line.

Arizona sat up a little, staring deeply into brown eyes while her hands reached the waist of the boxer, searching for any sign of hesitation from the panting woman under her, who smiled back to her and lifted the hips slightly so the boxer could slid down the long legs smoothly.

Arizona gasped when she drank in the complete naked form of her girlfriend, this woman was breathtakingly gorgeous. She said to herself that she would wait for Callie forever, fortunately, the wait was over.

Kicking off her own boxer, Arizona kissed her way back to plump lips, hands followed the way fondling from thighs to hips to breasts. Lips locked again as the blonde slipped a thigh between Callie's, grounding her hips so that their bodies nestled up from head to toes, wriggling and squirming against each other.

A hand tangled with soft blonde hair, another roamed down along the spine and ended on Callie's favorite part of her girlfriend's body, she gripped a handful of it, pulling their bodies closer, grinding hard and fast on each other's thighs.

"Oh my… Arizona that feels so good. God… I need you, make love to me." Callie managed to pant between ragged breaths.

Arizona pulled away to look Callie in the face, she felt her heart skipped a beat when the stunning woman under her was biting her bottom lip, concentrated on enjoying every sensation.

She couldn't help herself and she nipped the arching neck, sucking on the pulse point, feeling the rapid heartbeat. She knew she was going to leave a mark, she wanted to leave a mark, to brand her girlfriend, she just wished she wouldn´t get in trouble because of that later.

In the meantime, her hand snaked down between their bodies, finally landing where the brunette wanted her most.

"You are so hot Callie, jeez you are dripping… so hot…" Arizona moaned, a finger slowly running up and down the slit, flicking the bundle of nerves occasionally.

"Please… Arizona… please…" Callie wriggled her hips to try to gain more contact from the touch, she groaned when the blonde kept teasing her with the soft stroke.

Arizona was so engrossed watching her hot hot girlfriend writhing under her maneuver, she knew it was mean but she just wanted to prolong the moment. She plunged a single finger into the glistening moistness, pulling it out and circling the hooded member gently.

When she said she was going to explode, Callie wasn't joking. Deciding she couldn't take the teasing anymore, she used a hand to grab the back of the blonde's neck for a deep and wild kiss, and flew her other hand straight to Arizona's hot center, moaning when she found her girlfriend was drenching as well. She slid two fingers inside the wet heat, she curled them instantly and use the heel of her palm to rub the clit.

"Fuck…" Arizona broke the kiss to gasp for air and groaned, she rolled her hips to ride the fingers, and mirrored Callie's action entering her with two fingers. They quickly set a matching rhythm, it didn't take long until the thrusts got harder and faster and deeper, moans and groans filled the room.

"Arizona… I'm close." Callie panted out and buried her face in the crook of the blonde's neck, Arizona's hot breath above her ear pushed her over the cliff. An involuntarily spasm ran through her body, she bit down on the shoulder in front of her during the peak of the orgasm.

The pain from the bite and the feeling of the pulse around her fingers pulled Arizona over the cliff, husky moans came out of pink lips as she rode out of the orgasm and whispered the name of her girlfriend.

Withdrawing her fingers she used both hands to grab Callie's face for a fierce kiss, Arizona ground her hips, the brunette stroking her back and, as always, her hands landed on her butt.

"That was amazing." Callie smiled to Arizona, when they broke the kiss.

"I love you too." Arizona leaned in for another kiss, then moved to the side and rested her head on her girlfriend's shoulder, resting an arm on Callie's midsection, who brought her arms to wrapped around the blonde instantly.

After a moment of comfortable silence, Arizona looked up and found that her girlfriend was still wearing a smile looking back at her.

"Are you going to wear that smile the whole night?" Stroking olive skin with her palm, Arizona said teasingly.

"I can't help it. It may sound stupid so… never mind." Callie chuckled and shook her head slightly.

"Tell me," Arizona said inattentively, she was busy fondling Callie's bellybutton with her thumb, she giggled when the brunette twisted to avoid the ticklish touch.

"I just… I almost forgot the difference of having sex with someone, or making love with someone that I love," Callie picked up the hand that rested on her belly and entwined it with hers. "Stupid, right?"

"No, not at all." Arizona answered in a small voice.

"George and I… I know it seems ridiculous, before and after we went to Vegas, I was really, really wasted most of the time, I didn't even know if I knew what we were doing, I was just... so drunk, so lost… and so lonely." The brunette laughed dryly, Arizona leaned forward to place a kiss on the tanned shoulder, and Callie continued.

"And after I got back on my feet, I worked crazy hours in the pub, either went home passed the wee hour, or arrived so extremely tired that fell asleep right away. George is a good guy, he never forced me to do anything I didn't want to. I really ruined his life, the poor guy." Callie sighed.

"If you had not known me, do you think you'll give him another chance?" Uncertainty lingered in Arizona's voice, "you keep saying George is a good guy, caring and… good. He sounds like a good husband."

"He is a good guy, he could be a good husband, but just not mine. I left him for a reason, it sounds crazy but he's just not my cup of tea, even in the beginning I knew I couldn't love him the way I loved Malena or how I love you now." Softly stroking the slick back, Callie closed her eyes to savor the touch. "I trust my instincts, just tend to ignore them sometimes."

"Does it mean, you knew you'll love me from the beginning?" Arizona slowly shut her eyes as well, the gentle touch from her lover and the closeness felt so comfortable.

"I didn't mean that, I like you at first sight, just didn't expect to fall for you so fast and so hard." Callie said as she pulled the woman even closer to her, if it was possible.

A big yawn left the blonde's mouth that made Callie chuckled.

"I really like our talk but please forgive me, I'm really tired, can we continue later?" Arizona asked sheepishly.

"Sure, we have five days in LA to talk about everything. By the way, I was thinking we could stay at Addison's, but now I think maybe we better get a hotel room instead."

"Why?" Arizona closed her eyes again and buried her nose in the raven hair, and brought a hand to cup a full plump breast, letting out a satisfied sigh, knowing that from now on, she had granted the permission to play with the girls.

"I think I'm going to have lots of sex with you, staying in a hotel is best because then I can make you scream as loud as I want." Callie smirked, but her girlfriend was just too tired to response.

"Good idea, anywhere you go I'll go with you." Another yawn came out from pink lips.

"Ok, we'll talk later, go to sleep. I love you Arizona."

"I love you too, sleep like an angel."


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, I just borrowed the name of the characters for entertaining, no intention to violate any copyrights.

A/N : I'm sorry that this is an un-beta chapter. My beloved beta reader is unavailable for the moment, so we put this story on hold for a little while. But after the finale, I really want to post this happy chapter up, I need to.  
All mistakes are on me, thanks for reading.

* * *

Chapter 15

"Oh my god, yes… right there… don't stop don't stop don't… oh my… Arizona…"

The 2 arrived in LA around 6pm, instead of going to Callie's favorite restaurant, they decided to stay in, called room service and locked themselves in there, took the time to worship each other just liked they had in mind for the whole day.

After the last aftershock subsided, Arizona kissed and licked her way back up, featherlike kisses pecked around the cheeks and lips and chin to bring the spent woman back from oblivion.

Smile formed on the rosy cheeks, breath was still harsh and uneven, Callie blindly gripped the soppy face and crashed their lips together for an impassioned kiss, moaned when she tasted herself from the tongue invaded her mouth.

After the kiss, forehead against forehead, blue eyes gazed deep into brown, Arizona put a hand between the swelling flesh that she adored so much, feeling the still rapid heart beat under her palm.

"Yes, I am your Arizona. I love you."

"I love you too." The Latina looked back to the loving eyes, and pulled her down to capture the lips again. "I can't stop kissing you, it's like you have drugged me with your lips, what do you do to me?"

"I would say the same, I can't get enough of you." Arizona flopped on the bed, Callie turned to her side and pecked the cream shoulder, took the chance to glance the clock by the bed.

"Oops… I promised to call Addie when we arrived, I guess it's too late to call now, it's your fault." Callie quipped, wrapped her arms around the blonde.

"Hey, how could that be my fault? You were the one pressed me onto bed and bit my lips."

"You didn't have to put your hand under my shirt."

"Oh yes I do." Arizona grinned.

"See? You started it."

"But still, it was your fault, you are so damn hot that I couldn't take my hands off you."

"Umm… sweet talk can get you anywhere." Callie shifted to hover the blonde and kissed the pink lips deeply, both let out a soft moan when the Latina ground their hips together.

"See what you did to me? 5 hours in and I still can't get enough of you." Callie kissed down to the jawline and a hand was stroking the side of the fair body.

"I'm not complaining." The blonde panted out.

"Let's move this to the shower? You owe me a shower sex this morning, you were gone when I woke up." The plump lips were moving lower and lower.

"I didn't want to wake you… oh yes… you feel so good…"

"Always wake me up before you leave." Callie said between nipped the sensitized flesh. "I almost thought you regretted about last night and took a walk of shame."

Arizona pulled the woman up to lock eyes, gently brushed the raven hair off the face.

"You are insane to think like that, I regret nothing, I love you, I am in love with you."

"I am in love with you too." Callie said fondly, before brushing her lips against the pink ones. "Now, let's have our shower sex."

Callie flipped off the bed and pulled the blonde toward the bathroom. Arizona stopped her girlfriend by wrapped around her midsection from behind, placed a loudly kiss on the cheek.

"I love our holiday."

* * *

"Not that I mind, just curious, why aren't we stay in your hotel?" Arizona asked when she put the fruity pinky drink on the table between hers and Callie's beach chair, they were lying next to the hotel swimming pool to kill some time, since they were too sore to go anywhere yet.

Even covered by a pair of sunglasses, Arizona could still see her girlfriend rolled her beautiful brown eyes.

"I told you, not _my_ hotel."

"Yes, but you are a Torres, your family hotel is your hotel, no?"

"Can we not talk about this now?"

"Told you, I'm just curious. Not that I'm looking for some privilege when we stay in the hotel, this one is great. Just you are kind of giving business to your family's competitor, don't you think?"

"I… am saved by the bell." Callie grinned when her mobile chose this time to go off. "Hi Addie."

The brunette smiled and nodded and rolled her eyes, mouth opened and closed several times seemed she was trying to speak but couldn't cut in.

"Addison, Addie… I am sorry, ok? We were kind of tired when we got in here, I forgot to call you, sorry. I left you the message as soon as we woke up… Right, I know, sorry. Addie, listen to me, I am sorry. Great, we'll be there, can't wait to see you and Henry. Alright, see you, bye."

Callie let out a playful sigh and looked at her girlfriend who seemed concern.

"She's pissed?" Arizona asked before bit her bottom lips.

"That's just Addison, the drama queen. She said she didn't dare to leave her phone for a second last night, . I bet she kept the phone close so it won't wake her baby boy. I haven't got the chance to meet the little guy yet, she just adopted the baby a month ago."

"That's sweet, should we get him something before we visit? Toys, or some baby foods?"

"I don't know, I don't even remember to ask how old is he… She delivered the baby and the mother gave him to Addie right away, it makes him… a month or 2, right?" Callie stuck out her tongue.

"Seriously? Isn't she your best friend?" The blonde let out a teasing laugh.

"I know, but don't forget I just got back on my feet, and I really know nothing about babies."

"So what's the plan?"

"She's at work this morning, but will be home after lunch, then we'll go there to meet her. You'll love her house, it's right by the beach."

"Great, we still have some times to shop, let's go buy some baby stuffs." Arizona sat up and about to pick up her belonging.

"We don't know how big is he and what does he like…" Callie gripped her girlfriend's hand to pull her sit down on her lap.

"You are lucky, I know something about babies, I know something about the tiny human. Come on, let's go."

Arizona tried to get up but the brunette locked her hands to hold her in place, and rested the chin on the her shoulder from behind.

"I don't want to move, you wore my out this morning. Can't we stay here today? And can you take off the shirt so I can see the bikini?" Callie held up her hand and used a finger to pull open the collar, but the blonde smacked that away.

"Not until the hickeys across my chest faded out, I can't walk around in the hotel look like that, no way."

"Hey, at least I kept it under the neckline, the one you gave me is right in the middle of my neck, my dear. Did I complain about it?" Callie raised her brow, tilted her head to remind her girlfriend what she did last night.

"You love it when I branded you." Arizona smirked.

"I love anything you did to me." They smiled to each other and leaned closer for a slow kiss, used the distraction, Arizona pulled away before it got hotter.

"Come on, I really wanna buy something for the baby, I want Addison to like me."

"Hey, don't you think it's more important to please me than to Addison?" The brunette sat still in the chair, and reached out her hand tried to grab her girlfriend.

"Why? I already got you." Arizona shrugged mischievously, and then strode away from the pouting woman in the chair. "Let's go, snap snap."

"Wait up!" Sight heavily. Callie rose up from the chair and slowly walked close to Arizona, she whispered. "You know I can't walk first or I'll walk funny."

Clasped their hands together, a dimpled smile raised. "You didn't complain last night."

"Still not." Returned a broad grin, they walked toward their room hand in hand.

* * *

"Relax, she's gonna like you." Callie smiled to her girlfriend, and placed a hand on her lap to stop the bouncing.

"I know, but still, I am meeting your best friend the first time, and the world-class neonatal surgeon, it's like meeting the superstar in my field of work, how can't I be excited?"

"Believe me, she's just a normal person, who could eat a lot of muffins when she was drunk." Callie chuckled in the memory, glanced to her side she found the blonde looked at her with curiosity, she continued. "One time she drank too much, ended up finished a whole batch of muffins that Malena made for my birthday."

Realized the slip of mentioning her deceased girlfriend, Callie took the hand of Arizona's and gave a good squeeze. "I am sorry, I didn't mean to bring up…"

"Hey, it's ok. She was a big part of your life, you don't have to avoid talking about her because of me, I would like to hear about the happy stories you had in the past, and I'm intended to create much more with you."

"You are amazing, do you know that?" Brought the fair hand to her lips, Callie pulled their rental car into a driveway.

"Wow, nice neighborhood."

"I almost changed my mind and stayed in here, the whole month I did nothing but sat on the beach, it was like living in paradise."

"Glad you didn't change you mind." Arizona got out of the car, and beamed to her girlfriend who ran to the back to pick up the bags of gifts they got for baby Henry.

"Are you sure you are not exaggerated? How many stuff does a baby boy need?"

"They can never have enough onesies, and don't you think all those little clothes are so cute?"

"I think Addie is going to think you are crazy." She held up the hand full of bags to make the point. "Good first impression."

"You don't have much mama friends, do you?" Arizona walked next to the brunette and helped to take some of the gifts.

Callie rolled her eyes and then rang the door bell, a baby cried came from the other side of the door, the 2 women exchanged a look, and the door opened in a second.

"Great, you just arrived in a perfect timing, here, hold him." The messy looking redhead shoved the crying baby to Callie then ran back in the house.

Stunned by the suddenness, fumbled with the struggle crying baby in a hand and shopping bags in the other, she looked at her girlfriend wide-eyed pleading for help.

"Don't drop the baby, I'll get him." Settled the bags by the door, Arizona reached out to take Henry from the panic woman, held him tight against her chest and then gently bouncing him as they entered the house.

After Callie gathered everything, they walked together to the living area and found Addison was mopping the floor with a towel.

"Oh my god, I need a camera, the classy Addison Forbes Montgomery is mopping the floor, on her knees." Callie exclaimed.

"Laugh as you want, you'll be the same when you have yours one day." Addison said still busy in cleaning the floor.

"Hmm… I want to say nice to meet you but maybe it's not a good timing?"

"You bet." Addison stood up and smiled to the blonde who was holding her son. "Nice to meet you Arizona, I heard a lot about you."

Giving an amused look to her girlfriend, who blurted out immediately "I just told her I'm coming here with you." Then the brunette turned the attention to Addison, "you talked to Mark."

They got a broad grin as the confirmation.

"Ok, now tell us what had happened in here? Why the hell your son is in nothing but a diaper to greet us? Don't get me wrong, he is cute but I really don't like to have any semi naked or fully naked boy attached to my girlfriend, I don't share, you know." Callie joked as they walked toward the kitchen together, and Henry was contented to have the perky woman swaying and cooing at him.

"This little monkey just made a total mess, I had to change his diaper before he burped, of course he barfed all over himself. But can you explain to me, I gave you my son and you handed him over liked he was a plague, what was that?"

"He was crying! I won't mind to take him when he is all happy and quiet like now." Callie shifted closer to her girlfriend tried to take the baby, but the blonde turned away and stuck out her tongue.

"Great, you two could fight over him, I need a break. He needs a bath by the way."

"We just met your son, and you already let us strip him and bath him? What kind of a mother are you?" Callie smirked.

"Arizona works in PEDS, she can handle a baby, right? Really I need a break, Henry is a bit fussy today."

Callie looked at Arizona tried to find any hint of hesitation, but the blonde just shrugged. "I don't mind, he's a cutie pie."

"Perfect. The bathroom is down the hall, his baby bathtub is in there. I'll go up to pick up his change of clothes."

The 2 walked side by side to the bathroom, still holding Henry tight in her arms, Arizona instructed Callie to fill the tub. Baby Henry was getting restless when he was put on the changing table to remove the diaper, but the smile slowly pulled up when he was placed in the warm water, little hands and little legs wriggled to show the excitement. Arizona picked up a sponge and applied some baby wash on it, gently rubbed it against the baby for cleaning up, cooing at him and laugh to the funny faces she got in return.

Callie stood behind her woman and smiled to the antic between them, warmth spread in her heart and she was thinking of a dream she had never thought about before.

A hand laid on her shoulder stirred her daydream.

"Everything's ok?" Addison asked.

"Yes, little Henry here is a good swimmer, aren't you, aren't you…" Arizona was still talking in her baby voice, Callie just slightly shook her head and have a bigger grin on her face.

"Ok, the diaper and everything are by the changing table, I laid the clothes over there. I'll go get a drink." Addison silently asked Callie by her eyes, then turned around to stride to the living room.

"Honey do you need me in here?" Callie asked her girlfriend sheepishly.

"Do we need your auntie Callie in here, Henry? Do you need your auntie Callie here to see your silly smile, big boy? No? Auntie Callie can go out to drink with mummy, huh?" Arizona was having too much fun with Henry, Callie chuckled and then leaned down to kiss the blonde on her cheek.

"You're cute in your baby voice, but please don't bring it into our bed tonight."

"Hey, don't talk about S-E-X in front of a B-A-B-Y, now go away."

Kissed her girlfriend one more time, Callie left to the living room and found Addison was setting 3 wine glasses and a bottle of wine on the coffee table.

"She's a keeper." Addison said when she saw the brunette was walking toward her.

"And you are crazy, not 5 minutes in and you were making my girlfriend washing your baby."

"You have no idea how hard it is to be a single mother, of course it was great when Henry was being a good boy. But like today? I really didn't know I should let him cry his eyes out, or I should leave the milk stain on the floor dried out." Addison handed a glass of wine to Callie, and then took a gulp before sat down next to her friend on the couch.

"I am going to have a good rest tonight, drink some wine, so you 2 don't think about leaving early, I need one of you babysit my boy."

"Don't worry, Arizona can do that." Callie took a sip of the wine then set it on the coffee table.

"So, you two are serious?"

"Yes we are." A huge smile appeared on the Latina's face.

"Good to see this face again. But, are you sure this is not another rebound?"

"She is not a rebound, I know my feeling, Addie. I knew what I did with George, I just didn't care at that time."

"She knew about Malena and George, you didn't scare her away?"

Callie let out a content smile.

"I am really happy for you Cal. Mark and I talked after you called yesterday, he said you are able to talk about Malena now."

"It's about time, don't you think? It's time to move on."

"And she is not just another rebound." This is a statement more than a question.

"She is not a rebound, I love her, and she loves me too."

"So, I can give her the speech?"

"What speech? To me?" Arizona came in the living room with a happy baby in hand, and she sat the baby on Callie's lap before sat herself down on the other couch.

"If you broke my best friend's heart, I'll …" But she was cut off by Callie.

"What? Punch her in the face? Knock her head with your Jimmy Choo?" The belly laugh made the baby on her lap looked up with confused.

"No no, I'm against violence, I was going to say I'll sew up her vagina." Addison said in a serious tone, but then a second later they all burst in laughter.

Henry was getting fussy and squirmed around, Callie tried to hold him tight and soothed him, but it seemed not working.

"I don't think your son likes me Addie." Callie said to Addison, half joking but half concerned.

"He is just exhausted, I'll put him down for a nap, we'll talk more when I came back. You two make yourself at home." Addison picked up her son and walked upstairs.

Picked up Callie's wine glass, Arizona took a sip and said to the brunette. "She's really something, I like her."

"She liked you too, you are her babysitter tonight."

"He's really adorable, I don't mind."

Smiled to her girlfriend, Callie held out a hand and pulled the woman up to walk out to the deck, the beautiful white sandy beach was right in front of them. They leaned against the fence of the deck facing the ocean, Callie wrapped around Arizona's midsection from behind, inhaled the lingered baby smell from Henry.

"Have I told you today how much I love you?"

"Not yet, but I know you do." Arizona sank deeper in her girlfriend's embrace.

"Don't ever doubt that." Callie whispered before placed a kiss on her ear.

* * *

A/little rant : I am happy that the writers invest so much time on Callie & Arizona's story, really, the girls got good storyline - Callie's parents, the baby issue, Africa, Sofia, the car accident... But it seems the writers forgot that Callie & Arizona don't get a lot of screen time, they have to share it with so many characters, there isn't enough time to play out the story when it is deep and complicated. The amputation was a great idea but it couldn't go deeper on the show, it was a shame.  
For me, season 9 was a big let down. And I am fear for season 10.


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimaer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, I just borrowed the name of the characters for entertaining, no intention to violate any copyrights.

A/N : Sorry that this is another un-beta chapter. Not sorry for the happy time.

* * *

Chapter 16

"No way! I didn't do that."

"You did, it was you! You were the only one who could shake the hips like a freaking motor! Really, she was like Moses in the Red Sea, people on the dance floor made space for her. And there was a guy jumped out from the crowd gripped her and then the two of them danced or ground or humped… I didn't even have a word for that."

"It was salsa, supposed to dance like that!" Callie exclaimed.

"Ha! You remember!" Addison pointed a finger to the blushing Latina.

"No… but the way you described it, it was salsa." Callie turned her gazed to the girlfriend in her arm, Arizona just looked back and forth the bickering friends with amused.

"No, that was dry humping on the dance floor, Callie." The redhead pointed her finger again to emphasize her point, Callie rose up from her seat attempted to slap it away, but Addison quickly retracted her hand.

"It was salsa, and for god sakes I was 25, 26!" Callie flopped back on the bench angrily, threw her hands in the air with frustration.

"Anyway, since then we could easily enter that club, no waiting outside." Addison winked to Arizona, who was comfortably snuggled back to the side of her woman.

"Yea, there was a time." Callie said, hand slowly stroked the thigh next to hers.

"I don't know you go clubbing, I don't even know you dance." Arizona tilted her head to look at the brunette.

"I wasn't really a club going person, just went for some distractions that I needed." She shrugged casually.

"That's true, she didn't go clubbing with me since she settled down with a girlfriend." Addison picked up her glass of wine to take a sip slowly, it was after 5pm and Henry was taking his afternoon nap, so mama was going to relax a little bit with aunties.

"You didn't need me to go with you anyway, you were protected by a SWAT guy." Callie smirked, grinned happily as her found a way to get back her friend.

"A SWAT guy?"

"She dated a police, and later that guy transferred to SWAT team, what was his name again?" A naughty smile found a way to the plump lips, she remembered the name, just want to make Addison to admit that she remembered the guy as well.

"Kevin, nice guy, good kisser." A wry smile tugged at the corner of the lips of the redhead woman.

"Addie was crazy about him, she stalked the guy after a date." Callie said to the blonde sat next to her with excitement, it was a great story and she planned to tell Henry when he got older, for sure.

"Stalk – stalk, followed him around in the dark, stared at him from afar, that kind of stalk?" Arizona was so shock that her eyes almost popped out of her head. "Addison Forbes Montgomery, a world-class neonatal surgeon with board certifications in both Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Maternal and Fetal Medicine, stalked a guy?"

Addison didn't answer but sipped her wine, but Callie on the other hand, let out a full belly laugh. "I had to go bailed her out in the middle of the night."

"You were arrested?" Still wide-eyed blonde gazed at the redhead on the other side of the coffee table.

"First of all, I am just a woman. Secondly, I wasn't arrested, a nice police officer gave me a ride to the station downtown, I just called her to come pick me up." Addison put the glass down slowly, tried to act as cool as possible.

"… because…?" Callie smirked.

"I didn't know Kevin was in a mission, how could I knew when was not a good time to tailgate a nice guy who didn't call me back after a date?" Addison threw a cushion across the coffee table to try to hit her best friend, Callie caught it and put it on her lap.

"Addie, I think the answer is NEVER! You should never stalk a guy!" Callie burst into another round of guffaw when she saw the blonde next to her wiped away the tear in the corner of her eye.

"Yea, laugh as you want, but I got the guy, he liked my craziness." Addison ran a hand through her silklike red hair with a proud smile, Callie was about to bicker back, a cry from the baby monitor indicated that Henry had awakened, mama strode back to the house for her baby boy, the other 2 stayed on the deck to enjoy the ocean breeze and LA sunshine.

Callie closed her eyes and dropped her head against the back of the bench chair, a ghost of smile in the corner of her mouth as she missed the time being with her best friend, and the smile grew wider when blonde head found the way to nuzzled against her neck. She wrapped a hand around Arizona's shoulder to tug the blonde closer, the other hand found the fair hand which was resting on her inner thigh, fingers interwound instantly.

"Thank you for bringing me to meet Addison." Arizona said in a whisper.

"Hmmm…?" Callie asked without opened her eyes.

"I want to know you, everything about you. Hearing the stories from Addison, I know it's just a small part of you, but still it's interesting."

"What do you want to know about me?" Callie kissed the top of the blonde head.

"Everything, everything about you."

"Well, not to freak you out but I have quite an interesting life so far, I'll tell you my story but you gonna give me time." Callie buried her face into blonde hair and breathed in deeply, she was glad that Arizona remembered to pack her own shampoo in the suitcase, she already addicted to the smell of her girlfriend's rosy shampoo smell.

"I don't know if you noticed, I plan to stick around as long as you allow, so yea, you have time to tell me anything you want."

Callie smiled to her girlfriend and leaned toward her for a slow, linger kiss, let out a light moan when the blonde deepened the kiss. A matching smile showed on their face after the lips unlocked.

"That is the first girl on girl action you had witnessed, Henry. Can you say thank you to those ladies?" Addison reappeared with a happy baby, a broad smile plastered on his little face from a long nap.

"You are a terrible mother Addie, do you know that?" Callie said and reached out her arms for baby Henry.

"He is all happy and laughing now, so you want him, huh? How about hours ago when he was cranky and crying? And you call me a terrible mother!" Addison rolled her eyes while handed Henry to her friend.

"Hey, I'm his fun aunt Callie, I'm going to show him how to have fun and do naughty stuffs, even pick up girls when he's older, not to change his diaper or make him stop crying, that's your job, or Arizona's." Callie said when she settled the little boy on her laps, made a grimace to Addison.

"Hey, leave me out of it." Arizona said in her baby voice when she was trying to get Henry's attention, this baby was too cute that Arizona just wanna kissed those chunky little cheeks.

"So is this how you two are going to deal with your future children? Arizona has to get up in the middle of the night to change diaper and feed the monster alone, Callie you just show up when the child is all cheerful? I'm sorry for you Arizona." Addison sneered at her friend and sat back on her previous spot, she missed teasing her best like this.

Callie glanced at Arizona who was still making funny face to Henry, pretended didn't hear a word, then mouthed to Addison _I will kill you_, the redhead just stuck her tongue out to her.

Looking at her girlfriend coaxing at the baby in her arms, there was a funny feeling inside of Callie, a good funny feeling. Of course every little girl dreamed about having their own babies, but in her twentieth, having a child was never in her mind, even she was in love with Malena, they didn't talk about starting a family together. They were young and they were busy, being a parent was the last on the to-do list.

Arizona looked up and caught the smiley face with loving eyes from her lover, her own smile went wider when they locked eyes, they got lost in their little love bubble again.

Baby Henry took this time to remind everyone his present, a grumble came from his little belly, then a strong smell told that a diaper change was needed.

"Oh Henry, I just changed you before came down to here." Addison rose up slowly to take her son, Callie passed him over willingly.

"Anyone wants to practice diaper changing?" Addison asked the two before strode away.

"Oh I'm good, we don't know the other that well, it's too soon for me to see his shit." Callie laughed, then the mother and son went down the hall to the bathroom.

Callie clasped her hand with her girlfriend's, brought them up to place a kiss on the fair hand, smiled to the blonde who was smiling back to her.

"What are you thinking?" Arizona asked softly.

"I'm thinking how much I love you, and how lucky that I've had found you, and how much I want to kiss you right now." Nothing but sincerity and love poured out from the brown eyes, Arizona felt her soul had been drawn into them. Slowly, she leaned forward to place her lips on Callie's, a hand reached up to cup the face, her thumb stroked the plump lip after pulled away from the kiss. "I love you too, but no, not yet."

"What?" The brunette pulled further away to look at her girlfriend.

"I see from your eyes, you want a baby. But we are together for just a month, a baby, a family is a huge deal, it's a life, we can't rush it just because your clock is ticking." Arizona put her hand back on her girlfriend's face, slightly caressed it with her thumb, smiled when Callie leaned against her hand and sighed on the contact.

"Am I that obvious?" The brunette pursed her lips, Arizona just nodded. "You are right, I was thinking how great it could be to have a baby, but it wasn't because I want a baby, it was because I want to have a baby with you Arizona."

"You crazy woman." Arizona chuckled and pecked on lips of the brunette's. "I'm good with kids because I'm a kids doctor, it doesn't make me a good mother, don't let it fool you."

"So, do you want to have children someday?" Callie asked when the blonde shifted and rested the head on her shoulder.

"Is it a deal breaker?"

Arizona lifted her head to gaze at the Latina when she didn't get an answer, she sighed and pull away from Callie to sit up straight.

"Not that I don't want to have children, when the time is right, maybe I would like to have even 10 kids, with you if you don't mind. But I work in PEDS, I see sick kids all the time, take Wallace for example, no matter how rich his father was, he died, and left his parents heart broken. And sometimes the parents fought about how to deal with their sick child, or in our case, what if our child was sick but either one of us was not allowed to make medical decision when the other was not around? I know it because I see it everyday." Arizona said sincerely, but the brunette in front of her just look at her biting the lips, so she continued. "I love you, I really do. But I don't… we shouldn't, make a life changing decision irrationally."

Wetted her lips, Callie shook her head slightly and wrapped her arm around the blonde to pull the woman closer to her side. "You know, I never thought one day I would want to be a mother. Especially, I am a bartender, I work at night. How can I take care of a baby?"

Arizona tried to answered, but wouldn't come up with anything.

Callie used her free hand to grip the fair hand rested of her lap, "I don't know it's because of the things happened to me in the last year, or seeing Addison glows whenever Henry smiles at her, I want a family, I want to be with someone I love so deeply that we would raise a child together. That's what I'm thinking, that is my goal right now, at this moment when I have you in my life, the woman I love so much that I would do anything for."

"Callie..."

"I am not saying let's do this now, go down to Addie's office grip some sperm and put them inside you. We can talk about it 2 years later. And listen to me, if you still don't feel like having a child, I can live. If I have to choose between you and a child that may or may not love me back, you are always my priority." Callie kissed the top of the head that rested on her shoulder, "Just don't go crazy and break up with me because I seem having baby fever and you don't, we will work it out."

"What are you guys talking about? Work what out?"

Arizona looked up and found that Addison returned with Henry, she gazed into her girlfriend's brown eyes for a second, then turned to the redhead. "There is a very big chance, Callie and I will start a family in 2 years."

Addison's well shaped eyebrow raised up to her forehead with surprise, she looked at the brunette sat in front of her, who had the biggest smile on the face, but looked a bit stunned as well.

"Is this a mutual idea or...what? 'cos Callie, I never know you wanna be a mother." Addison looked between Callie and Arizona, she afraid her best friend made a decision liked that just to please the blonde.

"Addie, I never thought I want to be a mother, but now I do. I mean, I can wait until we are ready." Callie turned to her girlfriend to affirm that. "It's Arizona here who doesn't want kids, so you may have to help me to convince her."

"I am not saying I don't want kids!" Arizona exclaimed, but she was cut off by the brunette.

"I know sweetie, I am just teasing you." Callie kissed Arizona on her cheek before rose up from her seat to take Henry, the baby was happily jumped into his auntie Callie's arms so that he could grab a handful of raven hair. "Let's go make some coffee, what do you say little man?" She got a toothless grin in return before they headed to the kitchen.

"So, you don't like children? I am surprised." Addison said while she was clearing up the wine glasses on the table.

"I like children, I like all those tiny human even the naughty ones. I just never thought about to have one for myself." Arizona stood up to help, she picked up the wine bottle and found it wasn't empty, with a baby in the house really made them aware of the alcohol intake, the three of them didn't even finished a bottle.

"Well, if everything goes well, you won't be having a child on your own." Addison glanced over the kitchen direction.

"I know, I just need sometime to prepare myself. You should understand this, we saw so many sick children in our professional, it's kind of scary." The two picked up everything and headed back to the house together.

"Tell me about it. I... had an abortion, many many many… many years ago." Addison stopped before she passed the threshold, turned her head and found Arizona looked at her with wide eyes. "I was young and I was with a wrong guy at that time. And being an excellent OB, I dealt with difficult pregnancy most of the time, it was horrible to just think about what could go wrong. So, I took the easy way out."

"Did you regret that decision?" Arizona blurted out before she could stop herself.

"No." Addison strode away and Arizona followed suit, they walked side by side and the redhead doctor continued. "I wasn't ready to be a mother, and the father won't be a good father anyway."

"What made you changed your mind?"

"I don't know, my clock maybe. I wanna have a child, but I was too late, world class OB doesn't have any egg left to make a baby, irony isn't it? Luckily I got the chance to adopt this wonderful boy."

The two smiled to the sight in front of them, Callie held Henry sat up on the kitchen top and making funny face to the beaming baby, giggles came from the small kid when the big kid blew him a raspberry.

"Ok ok, don't play too rough, I'll have to be the one to take care of him when he woke up from nightmares." Addison said when she set the empty glasses in the sink, her son didn't even turn his head when his mother started to talk, he was so engaged in playing with his favorite auntie Callie.

"But he likes it." Callie chuckled when the chubby hand held up to reach her nose.

"He is just few months old, he won't know much, you really should be careful." Arizona went over to kiss her girlfriend on the cheek, and then leaned down to blow a small raspberry on the chubby cheek before putting the bottle in the fridge.

"Not you too!" Addison scowled and placed a hand on her hip, maybe it wasn't a good idea to have these two around her baby.

"Come on, he likes it, and he likes me, don't take away our fun, mama." Callie said before blew another raspberry against the fat tummy, it made the baby writhed and Callie almost lost her grip on the little boy, he almost, just almost fell backward.

Addison gasped.

"Oh my god, Callie Torres!" She ran around the kitchen top to pick up her son and held him tight. "You are too rough around babies, how can I make you my son's godmother?"

"You want to make me godmother?" Callie gazed at her friend in surprise.

"Well, I was thinking between you and Naomi, Mark and Sam to be the godfather. Now I think I have a pretty good idea who should be the godmother."

"What does a godmother has to do? Talk to him about god? You know my mother said I'll go to hell." The idea of reading the bible to the child brought back bad memory, the Latina couldn't help to scrunch her face.

"Huh?" Arizona snapped her head to look at her girlfriend, she just shrugged, "because I'm gay."

Arizona opened her mouth but couldn't come up with anything, and then Addison continued. "No, just if anything happened to me, I need to make sure Henry will be in good hand, after all, I am a single mother."

"That means I will have this little guy?" Callie went over to get the boy, and he happily leaned his tiny body forwarded to jump out of his mother, Addison turned her back to Callie to block them.

"Over my dead body, literally. And I haven't make my decision yet, as I said, it's between you and Naomi."

"Your friend who got angry with you because you dated her ex-husband, the husband divorced her for no good reason? Really?" Callie said as she kept playing peek-a-boo with Henry over Addison's shoulder. "And don't forget, Naomi has a daughter, she has a child but I don't have anyone. If Arizona and I decided not to make any, Henry will be my only chance."

"And you are not much better, you have a reputation, when things get hard you vanished." Addison was still trying to block between her son and the evil aunt, being too excited meant he would be cranky later the night.

"I… I…" Callie was speechless because it was true. She turned her gazed to Arizona, finding the smiling blue eyes looking back at her, she knew her answer. "I don't think I want to run anymore, I found a place that I don't want to leave, as long as I'm allowed, I will stick around."

Arizona walked toward her girlfriend, wrapped a hand behind her and pecked the cheek, "you better stick around."

Addison looked at the beaming couple with a smile. She knew Callie nearly 10 years, saw her ups and downs, always amused by how strong this Latina was no matter what shit life threw to her. Never thought she would see this cheerful side of Callie ever again after Malena passed away, who knew a certain blonde surgeon would bring sunshine back to her life.

"Fine, you can be Henry's godmother," She faked a sigh and handed the baby to Callie, but retracted her motion before the grinning godmother-to-be could reach her godson-to-be, "only if you stick around with this PEDS surgeon, he might have a lot of accidents if you keep being so rough around him."

Finally got to hold Henry again, Callie held the boy tight against her chest, she looked at her girlfriend who just put a loving hand on the back of Henry. "Sorry babe, for Henry's sake, we have to stay together."

Resting her face against the brunette's arm, making funny face to the chubby boy, Arizona whispered, "I have no problem with that."

"OK, about godfather, Sam seems not a good idea, right? I mean, he did break up with me because he doesn't want another kid, so why would he want to be Henry's godfather? I think I better pick Mark, he is so desperate to be a father anyway." Addison clapped her hands as she finally made up her mind for one of the most important decision in her life.

"Mark? So I'll have to raise Henry with Mark?" Callie screwed up her face, added quickly when she met with Addison's gaze, "I mean, if anything happened to you."

"Ha, so you will have your first child with Mark, Callie. Congratulations?" Arizona teased her girlfriend, earned herself a playful slapped on the shoulder.

"Seriously, we need to celebrate. I will get a sitter tomorrow night, let's go dancing. I bet Amelia knows a place or two that we could get into." Addison said as she walked toward the living room to grab her phone.


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimaer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, I just borrowed the name of the characters for entertaining, no intention to violate any copyrights.

* * *

Chapter 17

Ivory fingertip blushed up and down the tanned cheek so lightly, pink lips breathed out against the ear buried in raven hair. "Wakey wakey..."

"Mmm..." Callie let out an unconscious response.

"Wakey wakey..." Arizona tried again, this time she bit down on the earlobe gently.

"Mmmmmm... go away..." The usual badass bartender whined.

"Do you really want me to go away?" Arizona released the earlobe, kissed along the neckline to the pulse point, she loved to feel it throbbed against her lips.

"Mmmmmmmmmmmm..." Despite how much the brunette wanted to stay sleeping, her body pulled her away from the sleeping land by their own occur.

"Come on, we have a busy day ahead of us, time to wake up sleepy head." Mouth still sucking and licking the neck, by the sound of the breathing, she knew her girlfriend had awoken.

"You wore me out, I can't move, leave me alone." Callie blindly picked up the annoying hand that kept poking her face, pulled it to wrap around her own midsection from behind, pulled the blonde closer to herself.

"Don't say it if you don't mean it, do you really want me to leave you alone?" Arizona said in a teasing tone, chuckled when the girl in her arm pouted.

"Can we stay in bed today? We are on holiday, we shouldn't leave the bed." Callie murmured under her breath, it felt so good to have her girlfriend wrapped around her.

"It's sunny out there, I do remember you promised me sunshine and the beach in this vacation." Fingertips tantalized the bellybutton under her touch, they didn't even bother to put on any clothes to sleep in.

"Bikini?" Brown eyes snapped open and turned to look at the woman behind her.

"Bikini." Arizona grinned, "so, are you going to wake up now?"

"I am awake, but I don't want to leave the bed, it's too comfortable." Callie breathed out heavily, "how about you put on the bikini and come back to bed with me?"

"Callie... we have a busy day, you know that. We have to join Addison and her friends for dinner. We won't have a lot of time in the beach if we don't hurry up." Arizona leaned forward to capture the plump lips for a chaste morning kiss. "Good morning gorgeous."

But it wasn't enough for the brunette, she swirled in Arizona's embrace, then pushed her on the back, settled herself on top of the blonde and gave her a much more passionate morning kiss.

"Why do we have to go dinner with her? We already spent a day together, I rather have you naked in our bed instead." Callie said after they broke the kiss, still pouting face hovered above her girlfriend.

"I don't think she has much adult time since adopted Henry, just be a good friend, take her out for a girls night, ok? And I want to see you dance, see how you move these sexy hips." Arizona licked her lips as hands slowly stroking Callie's sides, gasped when the body above her started to thrust against her own body. She hooked her legs around the tanned thighs so their centers could get closer to the other.

"You know very well how these hips move." Plump lips nipped at Arizona's ear as their lower bodies started to move in sync.

"I thought you were worn out?" Arizona giggled.

"Unbelievable, right?" Callie moved her lips to the flesh in the back of Arizona's ear, knew it well that there had a hidden button of the blonde's sexy moan, "you are my drugs, Dr. Robbins."

Arizona groaned, she brought a hand to stroke the long black hair, the other to the tanned lower back to drag the body getting closer to hers.

"So, are we staying here today?" Callie said between sucking the fair neck, "or do you still want to go out? We can stop now."

Arizona moaned out, "Don't you want to see me in a blue bikini? It doesn't have a lot of fabric… oh Callie…" She threw her head to the back when the hungry mouth started to nibble her neck.

"You in a bikini is just the second best outfit I want to see on you," lips went back up to capture her girlfriend's, wasted no time Callie thrust her tongue into the waiting mouth, hand slowly kneading the soft flesh, occasionally blushing the tip with her thumb. Arizona had to break the kiss for air, the Latina turned her attention to the jaw line and continued, "the best outfit is what you are now."

"But I can't go to the beach in the nude…" The blonde bucked her hips upward to try to gain more friction, the leisured pace that Callie set up couldn't satisfy her anymore, she needed more.

"No you can't, so what do you say, we put on some clothes to get out of here now, or…" Callie said as she shifted a leg between Arizona's, brought their drenching centers together. In an instant, cream leg held up to wrap around her lover's waist to gain more support to grind against the downward thrusts.

"The beach can wait." Blue eyes rolled to the back of her head when Callie pinched her sensitive nipple, she started to believe this goddess above her already knew all the weakness on her body.

"Are you sure? I don't want you to resent me when you returned home without a tanned body." Looked down at her panting girlfriend, moans continuously came out from the pink lips, Callie knew she was having as much pleasure as herself, but she just couldn't help to tease the blonde.

"Oh god… Callie… just shut up and kiss me!" Arizona screamed and grabbed the back of Callie's neck to pull her down for a fierce kiss. After couple more intense thrusts, they tumbled over edge together. Callie laid on top of her blonde girlfriend for a while, her head rested between the swelling flesh, listened to the rapid heartbeat from the chest underneath her, matching with her own.

After a minute or so, Callie was about to lift herself off the delicate body, but the blonde tightened her hold to keep her girlfriend in place, Callie looked up to find sparkling blue eyes gazing at her with a smile.

"Let me get off of you, I'm heavy." Callie said softly.

"No you are not," Arizona bended her neck as far as she could to kiss the brunette's forehead. "I like it when you lay on top of me, make me feel safe, knowing that you are here with me. I love you, so much. It is scary sometimes."

Callie propped herself up by the elbows, she looked deep into the blue eyes then leaned forward for a lingering kiss, a kiss that wasn't erotic, wasn't possessive but purely love devotion, they both moaned in the sensation.

"I love you, so much, too. It's scary, I know. But I believe in love, and second chance. You are my second chance of happiness. I believe in you, in us, I know we can do anything together because you are amazing, I love you." Without breaking the eye contact, Callie could see the blue eyes that she fell in love to slowly had glazed with tears, she reached out to brush the few blonde strands aside, and caressed the cheek lovingly. "Shhh…. Don't cry, I don't want to see you cry ever again, I will never let you cry again."

She leaned forward again to kiss both eyes accordingly, then the top of Arizona's nose, the cheeks on both sides, pecked on the lips, the chin, the jaw on left and right… The blonde giggled at her girlfriend's antics, but soon it turned to soft groans when the lips went lower and lower.

"Callie…" Arizona moaned out.

"I am going to show you how much I love you." Callie said before kissing the throbbing bundle of nerves.

* * *

"Can you stop pouting already?" Callie got out of the taxi, stopped in the front to wait for her girlfriend. "It's not pretty. Cute, but not pretty." She smirked when the blonde walked up to her and she clasped their hands together before walked toward the front door of Addison's house.

"We've been in LA for 3 days, the nearest I got to go to the beach is the back of Addison's house, fully dressed. Teddy and Mark are going to tease me when I returned without a little bit of tan." Arizona said while pursed her lips, Callie couldn't help to lean forward to peck it away.

"No, they won't." Callie smiled in the kiss when she felt the blonde tried to deepen it, but she pulled away to ring the doorbell.

"They totally would, surely they would know you locked me in the room the whole time to have your way with me." Dimpled smile went wider when the brunette turned to stare at her with wide eyes.

"Excuse me? I locked you in the room? You didn't even let me get out of the bed." The brunette winked to her girlfriend.

"Hey that was last night, I woke you up this morning for some outdoor activities, but you ground your…" Arizona bit her tongue in time as she heard the door cracked open, arose an excited looking beautiful baby boy, tried to jump out of his mother's arm when he saw his new favorite aunties on the doorstep.

"Hi Addison, hi Henry, come here to me." Arizona greeted the redhead and then happily picked up the boy, pecked on the chubby face on the way walked deeper to the house, Callie followed her girlfriend and walked side by side with Addison.

"What were you two bickering about?" Addison asked after they settled in the living room.

"Arizona was complaining that we didn't get to go the beach, she wants to build a sand castle." Callie stuck out her tongue toward the blonde sat next to her, who slapped her arm slightly and tried to deny it, but Addison cut them off.

"There's a beach right there behind my house, why don't you just come over tomorrow, we can have a beach party, and you can take Henry to build the castle together, I'm sure he'll love it." Addison said with excitement, but the other two exchanged a glance, looked at each other with their mouths agape.

"Addie, don't get me wrong, I really love you and Henry, but um… we are here for vacation, _our_ vacation, so… we would like to have some alone time for just the two of us together tomorrow, hope you won't mind." Finally Callie spoke up. There had no way she was going to spend 3 days in a row with Addison, not that she didn't want to see Addison, but it could be more fun if it was only her blonde girlfriend and her, less clothes and a lot of touching preferably.

"So you are saying my best friend and her girlfriend are here for just a couple of days, they will be leaving after tomorrow and god knows when will be the next time we got to see each other again, but I am not allow to see them during the rest of their stay?" The redhead stared at her friend in disbelief.

"Addie… please." Callie swallowed hard, glanced at the blonde who ducked her head to pretend that she was engaging in an interesting finger courting game with Henry.

"That's fine, Callie, I'm just teasing you." Addison smiled and winked to the panicky Latina, "we better make tonight courts then, right?"

"Thank you Addie. So, what's the plan?" Callie asked as she moved closer to Arizona to tickle the fatty little angel on her laps, made a toothless grin displayed. "How about going to La Botte? I want to show Arizona my favorite restaurant, I'm sure you are going to love their mushroom risotto." She directed the last sentence to the blonde, who smiled back to her.

"Sorry, not tonight. Amelia suggests to go to her friend's restaurant for dinner. Afterward, if we are still up for it, they can take us to the club that they used to go." A phone on the table buzzed, Addison went over to pick it up, totally annoyed the pout on Callie's face. "Charlotte may run a little late."

"So Amelia and Charlotte are joining us tonight too? Great, I miss them." Callie turned her attention to Arizona, "Amelia is Derek Shepherd's youngest sister, and I like Charlotte." She quickly added when she met her girlfriend's question glance, "No, not the same way I like you, Charlotte is really cool, you'll like her too, she's kind of like Cristina."

"That's something I don't understand, you really don't find Charlotte harsh and mean?" Addison said casually while putting her keys and phone in her tiny purse.

"Nope, I found it endearing, I don't know, I am really fond of people who doesn't give a shit about other people." Callie shrugged.

"Callie, language!" Arizona slapped the brunette playfully, and giggled when she got a nudge in return.

"He doesn't know a damn thing of what the fuck we are talking about." They nudged back and forth, Callie exclaimed when she started to tickle the blonde and the baby on her laps, Arizona had to squirm to evade the attack and protect the little boy, Henry was laughing along with the two women.

"Hey hey hey break it off, you two! Don't hurt my son, I worked very hard to get him." Addison walked over to the couch quickly snatched Henry from Arizona's arms, and as soon as Henry was out of the way, Callie pinned the blonde on the couch and tickled her with full force, squeal came out from the pink lips begged for mercy.

"You were crazy about my dirty mouth this morning." Callie whispered into the ear of the woman underneath her before kissed the cute dimple, pulled away and smiled smugly when Arizona blushed scarlet at the words.

"Ok, it's enough, there's a baby in here. We should get out of here before you two ruined my couch." Addison rolled her eyes to the happy couple, "come on, let's drop Henry off at Sam's and pick up Naomi."

* * *

Addison pulled up in front of a fancy little restaurant like every other restaurants in LA. She handed the key to the valet, then they marched in the restaurant. The 4 gorgeous women together caught everyone's attention, and apparently Addison enjoy it very much – Callie whispered into Arizona's ear, that earned her a playful slap on the arm from the blonde. She grabbed the hand, clasped it tightly with hers.

The hostess led them to a table, where Amelia Shepherd and Charlotte King had already been seated. They stood up to greet the new comers. Addison was the first to give them a kiss on the cheek.

"Charlotte I thought you said you'll come later."

"Well, I was tired of the morons, so I called it the day earlier." She kissed Naomi and Callie respectively. Callie was about to introduce Arizona to her, but she stopped when Charlotte narrowed her eyes to the blonde.

"What a small world. They said Callie's coming with her girlfriend, I didn't expect to see you, Robbins."

"Hello, King. It's been a long time." Arizona mimicked Charlotte, tilted her head to stare at the other.

The rest of the women looked between Arizona and Charlotte with curiosity.

"Come on, give me a hug you little bitch." A grin spread on Charlotte's face after a brief seconds of staring, Arizona went over to wrap around her with a bone crash hug. They smiled to their friends after untangled themselves. "Charlotte was my resident in Hopkins."

"Wow, it is a small world indeed. You and Charlotte were in Hopkins together. And you are working with my brother Derek in Seattle." Amelia smiled to Arizona, exchanged a hand shake with her. "I'm the youngest Shepherd, Amelia."

"Nice to meet you. I knew Derek has several sisters, but I never met anyone."

"Oh well, he doesn't like us, that's why." She shrugged. And then everyone took their seat. Charlotte dragged Arizona to sit next to her, because apparently they have a lot of catching up to do.

"You are working in Seattle now? Seattle Grace?"

"Yes, I'm the head of PEDS." Arizona said proudly. "You?"

"St. Ambrose. Chief of staff." A cocky smile appeared on her face.

"Wow. Chief of staff?" Arizona looked at her former resident wide-eyed.

"She's the youngest physician in this position, because everyone in the hospital scared of her." Amelia winked at Charlotte and then picked up her glass of wine.

"Hey, you got to do what you got to do." Charlotte stated matter-of-factly.

After the waiters came to serve the drinks and took the orders, the conversation continued.

"It was true." Arizona let out a belly laugh, placed her hand on Callie's forearm which was rested on the table, turned to the rest of the group. "She was so jealous of my talent."

"No, I was not." Charlotte exclaimed.

"You were." Arizona looked at the rest of her new friends around the table. "She was just a year ahead of me. The attendings were so fond of me and always wanted me to be in their services."

"Because you always flashed your stupid dimples." Charlotte waved a hand in front of Arizona's face. "That should be banned in a work place, you know."

"I'm with you Charlotte. She still uses this trick a lot. It should be banned entirely." Callie nodded eagerly, everyone laugh with the comment.

"Hey, you love it." Arizona turned to face her girlfriend with an extra widen grin, made sure the dimples popped up.

Callie didn't answer but leaned in to peck on the pink lips.

"See, a nice friendly face can get you anywhere." Arizona turned to look at her old colleague with a sly smile.

"Right. Like the pants of half of the nurses in the hospital." Charlotte snorted.

"What?" Callie frowned, looked at her girlfriend.

"Hey! What happens in Hopkins, stays in Hopkins. Not like you didn't screw anyone in there." Arizona gave her a hard glare, hoped to stop the woman of speaking more than she already did.

"Not as many as you." Charlotte laughed, but knowing very well that they better avoid this subject when Callie was sitting right there looking at them with intense brown eyes. "We used to compete with each other, luckily she was a year after me. Otherwise, surely we would fight like hell for chief of resident."

"That is so true. You were lucky, because certainly I'll kick your butt." Arizona picked up her glass of wine, took a sip before nodded to herself.

"In your dream, Robbins. I kicked yours every time. I am a chief of staff, and you're just a head of a department." Charlotte said with proud in her voice.

"Chief of staff in St. Ambrose! I am the head of PEDS in Seattle Grace, the ranking is way higher than St. Ambrose." The PEDS surgeon sneered playfully.

"I was the director of a practice while I am the chief of staff."

"And got fire after several months." Naomi put in her 2 cents, apologized after Charlotte rolled her eyes and chewed her lips.

"Well, I just got 25 million of donation for the hospital, and another 8 million to start a free clinic." Arizona said with a grin. That earned her some praises and compliments around the table.

"Ok, I'll need more information about the donations." Charlotte raised a finger to point to the blonde. "I'm dating a fantastic guy, a pediatrician."

"I am in love with this amazing woman. And she loved me too." Arizona clasped her hand with Callie on the table, they smiled to each other. "I win."

The night went on. Slowly the conversations divided to 2 groups. Addison and Naomi were engaging in a heat discussion about a case. Arizona, Charlotte and Amelia were talking about their time in Hopkins. Callie sat next to Arizona, smiled and laughed and gasped along with the stories, but she was a little quiet and withdrawn than normal.

It wasn't unnoticed by her girlfriend.

"Hey, are you alright?" Arizona leaned closer to Callie, placed a hand on her lap. "You are quiet."

"I'm fine. Just getting tired." She picked up the hand, stroke the back of it with her thumb.

"Is it because our conversation bored you? I know, those were old boring stories." Arizona made a grimace, in order to make her girlfriend smile.

"No no, I like to hear your crazy days as an intern or a resident. I am just tired, you know, we didn't get much of sleep." A wry smile ghosted in the corner of the plump lips. Arizona didn't buy it.

"Hey, are we still going dancing?" Amelia asked the group after checked her mobile. That was the danger of a good girl's night out. They were talking, laughing, drinking. Without realized it, they had finished 4 bottles of wine in the restaurant. Except the designated driver Naomi, the rest of the women were kinda tipsy. "My friend said the club is getting crowded, we should head there now if we're still going."

They looked at each other. Charlotte was the first to speak. "Well, I've drunk enough. And I had a long day. Not really interested in going in a crowded club to be with a bunch of drunken, smelly guys. I have a guy waiting at home."

"I think we are going to pass too." Arizona said, still holding Callie's hand. "We are kinda tired, better go to get some rest."

"Oh..." Addison looked at them with a pout.

"I thought you want to dance." Callie raised her eyebrow to look at her girlfriend.

"I want to see you dance. But you are tired." Arizona said softly. "And Addison is a glass away from hammered, Naomi you should take her home."

"No Arizona, I'm fine." Callie whined, but was stopped when Arizona ran a hand through her raven hair.

"Shh… I'll take you back to the hotel."

* * *

The trip returned to the hotel was quiet. They just leaned against each other on the backseat of the taxi. Callie rested her head on Arizona's shoulder, but her mind was else where. Arizona was worried, but she didn't push it. She just sat there, quietly, holding her girlfriend's hand tightly.

After arrived in the hotel, Callie put her purse on the desk and sat on the bed to remove her shoes. Arizona went to the bathroom directly.

2 minutes later when she returned from the bathroom, she was wearing a bathrobe. Walked toward her girlfriend who was stupefied looking out of the window, she placed a soft hand on the tan cheek.

"Hey, I drew a bath. Care to join with me?"

Looking up to the beautiful blue eyes, Callie took a deep breath, leaned against the hand that caressing her face. "Arizona, I am sorry I ruined the night. I..."

"Shh... you didn't ruin anything." Arizona ducked her head, place a peck on her lover's lips. "Are you coming?" She retreated to the bathroom after received a nod from the brunette.

A minute later, a very naked Latina entered the bathroom, couldn't hold the smile when she found her girlfriend soaked in her favorite lavender bath salt.

"So you packed the bath salt too? No wonder your suitcase is heavy."

"Surprise! Come here." Arizona reached out a hand, Callie took it and then carefully stepped in the tub, settled in front of the blonde.

They remained silent for a while. Callie relaxed herself on the soft body behind her, leaned back to rest her head on the crook of Arizona's neck, while the other gently rubbed her shoulders and front with a towel.

"So," Arizona placed a series of featherlike kisses along the long neck of her girlfriend's. "Are you going to tell me what is bothering you?"

The brunette didn't say anything but sighed.

Arizona wrapped her arms around the torso in front of her, rested her chin on Callie's shoulder. "Is it because Charlotte talked about my... past in Hopkins? That I involved with the nurses? Hmmm? I am sorry you have to hear that. Believe me, I am not proud of it." She said softly.

Callie leaned her head toward the blonde head, entwined her fingers with Arizona's and then rested them on her stomach. "I wasn't happy to hear that of course, but I understand that those were your past."

"Then what is it? Why are so you so upset?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?" Arizona pulled away to look Callie in the eyes. She squinted at the brunette who was avoiding eye contact. "We had a great time, everything was fine. All in a sudden you got quiet and abstracted. Don't tell me it was nothing." But she got no answer except seeing her girlfriend biting the corner of her bottom lip. She kissed the tanned cheek before putting her chin back to the previous position. She continued.

"I am not a good mind reader. All I could think of is, you are not happy to know that I... um... had umm... interactions with nurses in Hopkins and Seattle Grace..."

"I didn't know about Seattle Grace, I thought you just had 1 in there." Callie kissed the corner of the pink lips, then rose a hand to cup the fair cheek when the blonde didn't turn to meet her lips. Arizona locked their lips, but pulled away quickly before Callie got a chance to deepen it.

"Do not distract me when I try to make a confession in here." The big spoon tightened the hold on the midsection after Callie put her hand back on top of the entwined fingers.

"I told you, I understand. You don't have to..."

"But I have a whole speech in my head. I am going to promise you, I won't look at any other woman anymore. I won't flirt with anyone else. Your pants is the only one that I want to get into." Dimpled smile displayed when she saw a smile on her girlfriend's face. "It goes both ways, you know."

"That is sweet. But really, it doesn't bother me that much. I know it was your past and who am I to talk? I had my baggage too."

"Then what was it? Just tell me. I don't want us to have any secret. And I don't want this to ruin the rest of our stay. Just tell me, ok?"

"I..." Callie sighed. Thumbs nervously stroking the long fingers in her hands. "You are a promising surgeon. You are talented. You are in the management of a world class hospital. You deserve to be with someone... more professional. I don't know, another doctor, or at least a nurse. I'm just a bartender."

"What are you talking about? You are not _just_ a bartender. And there is nothing wrong of being a bartender." Arizona frowned, pulled away to look at the woman in her arms like she was insane.

"Think about this. You are attending a conference or a reception with your fellow physicians, I tag along as your plus one. Everyone is introducing their other half as doctors, lawyers, bank managers. And you go 'Oh, my girlfriend is just a bartender.'"

"You are not _just_ a bartender. If you say that again, I am going to pinch you." Still staring at the brunette with wide eyes, Arizona said in a more serious tone.

"But I am JUST a bartender! OOCH!" As promised, Arizona pinched one of the Callie's nipple without warning.

"I told you. Stop saying that. My girlfriend is not just a bartender. She is an awesome bartender. She is an excellent bartender. She is an incredible woman who owned 3 different pubs in 3 different cities. I have no problem to introduce the woman I love to my fellows."

"I'm just thinking..."

"Don't. I love you, not your profession. You were the one saying that you believe in us, this morning. If you keep thinking of stupid thing like this, I have to make an appointment with Derek to check your brain. _Just a bartender_. You say that again, I'll twist both of your nipples." To amplify the threat, Arizona moved both of hands to cup the swelling flesh.

"Actually, I am thinking, maybe I should go back to finish med school."


	18. Chapter 18

Disclaimaer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, I just borrowed the name of the characters for entertaining, no intention to violate any copyrights.

A/N : sorry for the unedited chapter, again.

* * *

"Wait. What do you mean you don't even know if you had graduated or not?" The two of them stood in front of the bathroom mirror drying themselves off with towels. Arizona asked after wrapped herself in the towel, picked up the bottle of night cream.

"I left Miami right after the final, didn't wait for the result. I didn't even attend the graduation." Callie shrugged, took the offered bottle from her girlfriend. "This one really is better than the brand I am using. Wanna go shopping tomorrow?"

"Ok. So, what had happened actually?"

"It was a long story..." The brunette said casually while applying the night cream on her face. "You don't wanna know."

"I know it was a long story. You can't just drop a bomb, telling me you went to med school and then left it there. I won't be able to sleep if you just leave me hanging." Arizona turned around to lean on the lavabo sink, hands on either side next to her hips.

Moved a step to stand right in front of the blonde, Callie put her hands on Arizona's towel covered hips, a sly smile plastered on her face. "How about we go multiple rounds until you couldn't think straight?"

Callie was about to capture the pink lips, but the blonde pulled back. "Hey, don't make me use the withhold sex card, I plan to use that for more important occasion."

"You won't do that." Brown eyes squinted at blue.

Arizona wriggled out of the hold of her girlfriend, walked out of the bathroom, sang out over her shoulder. "If I have to."

Head bowed. Callie followed the blonde out of the bathroom, found her girlfriend was putting on a T shirt to sleep in. "Seriously?"

"Ya, you don't want to mess with me." Arizona tried to hold in a smirk while putting on the short. Glance to the brunette, who was wearing a pout. "Put the clothes on. We are going to talk."

"But I don't want to." Badass bartender Callie Torres whined again.

Arizona turned around to hide her smirk. Pulled off the bedspread, she sat in the middle of the bed, resting against the headboard gazing at the brunette.

Rolled her eyes, mumbled under her breath, Callie put on a tank top and a pair of panties. She stood by the end of the bed, hands on her hips, looking at her girlfriend with a pout still on. "Happy now?"

"Thrilled. Now come on." She patted the spot next to her. The brunette climbed on the bed and flopped next to her.

"What do you want to know?" Callie sighed.

"From the beginning?"

"OK." Shaking her head, Callie pursed her lips to organize her thought. "First off, you need to know I realized I'm attracted to girls until very late. Started from my teenage, I always went out with boys. Didn't really take them home to meet anyone from my family, but they knew I dated boys. Then, second year of med school, there was a new girl transferred to Miller. Did I tell you I was in Miller?"

The blonde shook her head.

"Anyway, I was in Miller, close to home. So this new girl, in a new place, knew nobody. And I don't know why, the rest of the kids didn't really like her. Out of pity, or... I don't know, I liked her attitude, we were getting close. At the time I had a boyfriend, but other than spending time with him, I was with Erica. My relationship with that guy didn't last long, he was a dud." Callie rolled her eyes. "I can't even remember his name."

"I didn't look for another boyfriend after the dud, because school was getting hectic, and without knowing it, I spent most of my waking moment with Erica. I mean, we took the same classes, we went everywhere together, we crushed in each other's dorm room to study or just chat almost every night."

"You got curious?" Arizona interrupted, totally seeing how this story went.

"We got curious." She nodded. "Thing started to surface during the third year. I didn't really think about that way at that moment. But one of the guy, you know those frat boys, joked about it when we went drinking before spring break. He offered a 100 dollar to dare us to kiss on the stage in my pub... Did I tell you I already had a pub? I had it with a 2 cousins since college, I owned the biggest share. And then there was another guy offered another 100 to dare us kiss with tongue."

"You made out with a girl for money?" Arizona laughed. Callie laughed along. Flipped to lay on her stomach, propped herself up by the elbows.

"We earned 200 dollar. And a relationship. We didn't know what was that in the beginning, it got awkward for the rest of the night. And after the spring break. Well, somehow we figured it out and we started to date. Not going to lie to you, the sex was awful. We both didn't know what were we doing, I couldn't go down on her in the first few times."

"I think about it now, I didn't know we were together because I loved her as a girlfriend, or a best friend. Anyway, we were together. But, my family didn't know I was dating a girl. Not that I intended to hide from them, just I didn't use to bring anyone home. And knowing my super religious parents, I needed to ease a way to tell them. But Erica wasn't happy about it. She wanted more and she wanted it right away. She wanted to meet my parents, be a part of my family dinner or something. I just blushed it off the best I could."

"A new born met a new born, never went well." Arizona shrugged, wrinkled her nose in a grimace.

"Worse. I was her first serious relationship." Callie wrinkled her nose as well. "I went home to my parents during summer. One day, I was supposed to meet Erica in the shopping mall for our lunch date. She came to my parent's house to claim that she was there to pick me up for our date."

"Oh my god!"

"My parents were not happy about it. My mother ignored me. My father threw a bible at me, literally threw a bible at me. He threatened me that if I don't stop doing what I was doing with Erica, he and the family would cut me off, he could pretend that he never had me as his daughter. I thought he wasn't serious because my dad loved me, and I adored him. I was his favorite daughter that had him wrapped around my finger. A week after returned to school, he came to the campus will a priest. I don't know how but he managed to get an empty classroom, he and father Kevin kept telling me what a sin it was to be in a relationship with a woman, how I might be burnt in hell for eternity." Callie dropped her body on the mattress, rested her head on her crossed arms, stared at the headboard in front of her.

"There is something I still don't understand about that day. My father knew me. He knew I'm a hothead and as stubborn as him. He knew he couldn't force me to do the thing that I don't want to. But he did it anyway. He told me if I insisted on committing that crime, he rather to cut me off. We had the biggest fight we ever had, father Kevin had to drag him out after he slapped me on the face. Before he left the room, I shouted at him _consider I'm out of your life_."

"Oh Callie..." Arizona ran her fingers through the dark hair, tried to soothe her girlfriend.

"2 days later when I tried to use my credit card to buy stuffs, it was blocked. I checked with the bank, found that my father had frozen my account." Callie tilted her head a little to look at the blue eyes. Not surprise to see it dilated.

"He didn't!"

"He did." Callie nodded. "Luckily I had full scholarship so I didn't have to worry about school. And the investment in the pub kept me from starving to death."

"For how long? I mean this situation between you and your father?" The blonde furrowed her forehead, hand still combing the silklike hair with her hand.

"Well, 6 or 7 years..."

"What?" Eyebrow raised, Arizona couldn't believe what she heard. "That means..."

"I told you it was a long story." The brunette turned to the side, propped up her head by the elbow.

"But honey, for 7 years, you didn't talk to your father?" Arizona held out a hand to run along the tanned arm, picked up Callie's free hand, entwined their fingers together.

"Uh... my whole family..." Callie gazed at their hands, said in a whisper.

Arizona didn't know how to response to that except dropped her jaw.

"After the fight, after he froze my account, I called him, I called my mother, I tried to reach my sister, but none of them returned my calls. I went back to the house and the housekeeper told me Mr. Torres forbade me to enter his house, what else could I do?"

"You had to deal with all the terrible things without any support from your family, no wonder..." Released the breath that she didn't know she was holding, Arizona tugged their linked hands to pull Callie closer to her. The brunette happily leaned forward. Rested her head on the chest of her girlfriend's, hands wrapped around the slim waist in an instant.

"Well, I don't need them. I survived with or without them." Callie answered with her eyes closed. It was hard in the beginning when her family abandoned her. She had cried. She had cursed. And she got over it eventually. Live went on. She just needed to not to think too much about it.

Arizona's hand gently rubbed circle on the tank top cover back. They laid like that for a while without saying a word.

Suddenly, the blonde stopped her hand and asked. "That doesn't answer why you didn't graduate from med school."

Sighed heavily. Callie sat up with her legs crossed, facing her girlfriend. "I thought we are done talking."

Putting a hand on Callie's bare thigh, Arizona said softly. "We don't have to. I just want to know more about you."

Looking into blue eyes, dimples smile plastered on that angelic face. Callie scrunched her face.

"You are not playing fair again. You know I won't said no to your dimples." That earned her a firm squeeze on the thigh and a wider smile. Shaking her head, she continued.

"Erica and I remained together. But to think about it now, it was kinda like I kept seeing her to prove to my family that I was not a push over, I won't bended because they took away my wealth. Another reason, we were busy with preparing for the final, I didn't really put much of thought about 'us'." Arizona nodded. She understood how hectic it would be around the final exam.

"The day after the final exam, we... Uh... celebrated, you know. In her dorm. We laid in bed, she wrapped around me. As the exam was over, it was like I was finally able to think about what had happened in the last few months. I was deep in my own thought, thinking about the future ahead of me. To be honest, I didn't have Erica in my plan. Not that I intended to exclude her in it, just... I don't know, I didn't think about her. Suddenly, she started to talk. She said something about never really saw leaves before, I made her realized the green blobs on the tree were leaves."

Arizona frowned, looking at the brunette in confused. "Leaves?"

"She explained to me, that it was like she didn't realize what she was missing in her life until she met me. I made her see things clearly, like she could see the leaves on the trees from afar." Subconsciously, both of them glanced to the plant in the corner of the room.

"She imagined our future together. We would go to the same hospital for the internship and residency. We would be the power couple that everyone look up to. She said a lot but all I could think about was what the hell did I get myself into." Callie propped her head on the elbow against the thigh that was not squeezed by her girlfriend, looking at the woman laying in front of her.

"She was obsessed with me. I understand that. We were each other's first woman and she thought I chose her over my family. But I wasn't. I was just mad at my dad for not accepting who I am. Anyway, I made up an excuse to leave her room in the middle of the night. For a week, I tried very hard to explain to her that I didn't think we were going to work, but she didn't listen. Instead, she became more and more clingy."

Reached out to the nightstand, Arizona grabbed a bottle of water and handed it to the brunette. She took a sip before continued the story.

"Then, one night I was in the pub drinking and talking with my 2 cousins, the only 2 that still talked to me from the entire family. Partly because we had the pub together, partly because one of them was in the closet, had sympathy for me. I complained that I didn't know what to do with Erica. And learning my father told my uncles that he won't accept a lesbian daughter, made me realized he cared about his name more than he own blood. I wanted to be a doctor because I liked it, of course. But saw the proud in his eyes when I told him I got in med school was one of the happiest moment I had with him. I was proud to make him proud."

Callie looked down to the bottle of water in her hand. Chewing the corner of her mouth. She didn't realized it still hurt so bad when she thought about her and her father. It had been a long time.

Arizona sat up face to face to her lover, held up a hand to pull the woman by the back of her neck. Arizona buried her face in Callie's neck, and the Latina did the same.

"I said to my cousins, I just wished I could throw caution to the wind, leave everything behind, start fresh in somewhere without the drama." The Latina said against the soft skin of her girlfriend, a hint of lavender coming from the woman she loved soothing the pain she hadn't felt for years. A kiss landed on her neck from Arizona as in the response of understanding. Who didn't want to throw caution to the wind?

Pulled away from her girlfriend, Callie sat straight to go on with the story telling.

"Toni, my favorite cousin asked me why not? And then I asked myself the same question. At that time, I sincerely believed that this was the right decision. I didn't need the family that didn't accept me. I didn't need to do anything to make my family proud because I didn't have a family. And I didn't want to be responsible for someone to see leaves. So... I took the earliest flight to New York the next morning."

"You just took off?" Arizona tried her best not to look shock. She knew Callie could just up and leaving like that. But leaving Miami didn't like leaving New York. Leaving a place that she grew up with should not be an easy decision.

"Toni and his boyfriend bought out my share of the pub, much more than it was worth. And I think they took care of my crap in the dorm too." Callie chuckled. "I called Erica after I arrived in New York. Explained to her that I... umm... felt suffocated. From my family. From being a doctor. From being in a serious relationship. I had to leave. She didn't accept my apology. The call didn't end well."

"Let me guess... You never called her again?" Arizona squinted at the Latina in a serious face. Callie shook her head.

"And your family? Did you try to call them?" Arizona asked again, in the same expression.

"What can I do? My dad cut me off." Callie exclaimed.

"Do they even know where were you all these years?" Callie shook her head again. "Oh god..."

"I did fine. I settled in New York. Used the money from selling the pub in Miami to open another one in New York. I made money in there. I made friends. I met Malena. The years in New York meant a lot to me."

"But why didn't you continue... I mean, you finished the exam, you didn't even check if you passed it. You could have passed the exam, started your internship in somewhere... I don't understand." The blonde found herself couldn't sit on the bed. She got up and started to pace in the room.

"Arizona, I wanted a clean start. Continue the path of being a doctor wasn't in my mind. Maybe because of my father. Or maybe it remained me of Erica. I don't understand either. I just... I like to be a bartender. I like the interaction with my customers. So I opened another pub. I named it _Funhouse_. I wanted it to be a house of fun." Callie's head followed the pacing blonde head anxiously.

"How could you... how could you... just drop everything? I understand you were hurt by your family, but how could you... how..." The blonde was pacing faster and faster. Callie jumped out of the bed, grasped her wrist to stop the pace. Arizona was stunned by the sudden move, almost fell backward from the pull. Callie quickly wrapped her hands around the blonde's waist to stabilize her.

"What's matter, Arizona?" Callie ducked her head to look at the blue eyes.

"Don't ever leave." Arizona breathed out after a while of silence, looked back to the brown eyes.

"What?"

"There's a pattern in here. When things went downhill, you... ran away. You left Miami because of your family. And because you and Erica were going toward a serious relationship. You left New York because George wanted more from you." Callie was about to protest, but Arizona stopped her. "I know, I know he was a mistake, but still... you left him. You left the city you called home for almost 6 years. You didn't just leave. You fled. You took the next flight fled to another state, Callie."

"I am not proud of it." Callie took a deep breath, glanced to the ceiling to gather her thought. "In my defence, I left Miami and New York because there had nothing for me to stay." Looked down, she met the worried eyes from the woman in her arms. "I would have stayed in Miami if my family didn't cut me off. I would have stayed in New York if Malena didn't die."

A ghost of smile played around the plump lips before she leaned down to capture the sweet lips of her girlfriend's for a tender kiss. "You are the reason I stay in Seattle. As long as you want me, I am not going anywhere. I promise."

Arizona held up her hands, grasped Callie's lower cheeks to lock their sights. "I love you. I never thought I would love someone so much, so deep in such a short time. But I did. You made me fall in love with you. I had baggage. I had past that I am ashamed of. I need you to promise me, if... no, when you feel like you are suffocated, from me or from anything that happened around us, you come to talk to me. Do not just jump on the next plane to god knows where to flee from me."

Looking straight to the woman, Callie surprised to see vulnerable dancing on the face of the usual confidence surgeon. And tears started to glaze around the sky blue eyes.

Tightened the hold on the waist to pull Arizona closer to her body, Callie wet her own lips before saying. "I can't go anywhere without my heart. You have my heart. Unless you broke it. Unless you threw it back to my face. You are stuck with me." She landed a kiss on her girlfriend's forehead, pulled back to look at the woman who had a smile slowly spread across her face. The brunette plastered a megawatt smile in returned.

They stood there forehead against forehead, arms wrapped around waists, did nothing but... just held each other tight. Suddenly, Callie started to giggle.

"What?" The blonde couldn't help to smile, pull back to squint at Callie, who just leaned forward, dropped the head to her shoulder, still giggling. "What?"

"Just... something wrong with us tonight, didn't you see it? We took turn to freak out tonight." Callie laughed against the fair neck. Realizing it, Arizona let out the angelic laugh along.

"Oh my god, we did. Didn't we?"

After the laugh stopped, Callie collected herself. Stood straight, put her hands on either sides of Arizona's shoulders. "OK, we let it out of our system tonight. I love you, and you love me. None of the rest of it matter, right?"

Full force dimpled smile on her face, Arizona answered. "Right!"

* * *

A/N 2: This part ran longer than I intended, at least I had their love to each other secured. Time to reveal the big drama, I guess.


	19. Chapter 19

Disclaimaer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, I just borrowed the name of the characters for entertaining, no intention to violate any copyrights.

A/N: All mistake is on me, sorry about this.  
If anyone who follows this story from the beginning and willing to help beta it, please PM me.

* * *

"What was that noise? Shut it off!" The blonde murmured into her pillow.

"That is your cell phone. I told you to change the ringtone to a softer one." Callie murmured against the naked back under her.

"Who is that?" Still sleeping on her stomach, Arizona didn't want to move a bit. Maybe her girlfriend who was lying half on top on her would love her enough to answer the phone for her.

"Probably your mother..." Apparently, Callie loved her sleep too.

"No... she knows not to call me in this hour, not my mother." Buried deeper into the pillow, hoped that could block the annoying ringing out of her ears. She really should change to a softer ringtone, she thought to herself.

"Can you answer it already? It's loud." Callie fumbled around blindly, grasped the blonde's arm then swung it toward the nightstand where their cell phones were.

Groaned loudly, Arizona picked up the phone, her eyes opened for a spit second just to click on the phone. "Hello?"

"Hi Arizona... you're still in bed?" The caller asked in surprise.

"Who is it?" Arizona asked after a big yawn.

"This is Charlotte King."

"Hi Charlotte. Why are you calling me so early?" Knowing it shouldn't be anything urgent from family or work, Arizona was getting ready to end the call.

"Arizona Robbins, it's 9am. Most of the people already had a lot of work done." Charlotte snorted on the other side.

"Charlotte, I am on a holiday, with my hot, hot girlfriend." Arizona snickered when the brunette gave her back a smack kiss in agree. "We don't do much in the morning. By morning, I mean before noon. What do you want?"

"I have an incoming, 6 years old boy. Admitted an hour ago with abdominal pain. The morons in here did all kind of tests but couldn't find out what is wrong with the poor boy. I'm wondering if you want to come to take a look of it."

"How was the scan?" She stretched and then sank deeper in the bed, but her mind was totally awake now.

"Normal."

"And the EKG?"

"A bit irregular, but the cardio said it isn't a big deal for a little boy with this level of pain."

"I'm on holiday Charlotte. Besides, I don't have privilege in your hospital." Arizona turned to her back when she felt her girlfriend shifted to get off of her back. Found that Callie got up walking toward the bathroom.

"I am the chief of staff, when I say you have privilege, you have privilege. Come on, the poor boy is crying in pain. His parents are pointing fingers to each other that made him scared even more. The useless morons are useless... _Right, I'm talking about you. I was waiting for those lab results for hours. I thought I had to do the lab work myself. Go, do something productive._ Sorry about that Arizona. So, come over and meet me in the 3rd floor. Hurry. Oh, say hi to Callie for me. Bye."

Still lying on the bed, Arizona looked at her phone didn't know what just happened. A click from the bathroom, the door opened that revealed Callie coming out with a tooth brush in her hand.

"What are you doing?"

"Preparing to brush my teeth." The brunette held up the tooth brush, smirking.

"Oh well, I can see that."

"Charlotte wants you to go to St. Ambrose, right?" Callie raised her eyebrow, leaned against the bathroom door frame looking at the blonde who was sitting up from the bed slowly.

"How do you know?" Arizona arched her back and stretched herself. Still a bit sore from the activity after they had the heartfelt talked last night.

"Well, it happened more than once that Charlotte paged Addison back to the hospital in the middle of the night just because she wanted to have the best doctor for her patients. I am not surprise that she called you when she knows you are in town."

"Yes. But... I'm on our holiday..." The blonde murmured under her breath, flopped back on her back.

"Can you really ignore a child in need? Charlotte called you, apparently her staffs couldn't find out what's wrong with the patient. She called you because you, Arizona Robbins is awesome." Callie gave her a wink before returned to the bathroom. "Come on, get your butt out of the bed and get ready. I'll drive you to there."

"But I... How about you? I don't know how long it's gonna take, I don't want to leave you alone." Arizona entered the bathroom with a pout. She liked to save life, but it sucked if that meant she had to leave her girlfriend on the last day of their holiday.

"Don't worry. I can spend sometime with Addison, I think she's in the hospital today." Callie smiled to the pouting blonde in the mirror after rinsed the toothpaste, who came close to wrap the arms around her waist from behind, placed a gently kiss on the tanned shoulder.

"I love you. How can you be so perfect?" Arizona loosened the grip when the brunette whirled in her arms. Their lips found each other in an instant.

"Because you make me perfect." Callie smiled in the kiss and then pulled away, too quick for Arizona's liking. "Hurry up, the sooner we got in there, the sooner you finished the consult. Maybe we could still catch a couple hours in the beach." A slap on the blonde's bare hip, she wriggled out of the hold of her girlfriend.

"And hey, Arizona," Callie called out before stepping out of the bathroom, the blonde looked up from the sink, found the reflection of the brunette from the mirror. "I love you too."

Looking back at herself in the mirror, she found herself grinned like a fool. But she didn't mind.

* * *

"I still can't believe those morons, how could they miss a ruptured cyst?" Charlotte shook her head behind Arizona, who was wrist deep in an open body.

"You have to give them some credit, Dr. King." Arizona said, without stopping her hands. "They already did everything they could. To be honestly, it was not that easy to diagnose. I wouldn't notice it if I haven't treated this before. So, next time when another patient came in with the similar symptom, your doctors would know how to handle it." Arizona smile to the surgeon standing on the opposite of the table. Even though most of her face was masked, she made sure the smile reached to her eyes so the defeated young doctor could feel the console from her.

"Look at you, all confident now. Remember the time you freaked out when you couldn't draw a central line?" Charlotte snorted lightly.

"It was in the first week of my intern year, give me a break. Not like you didn't screw up a…" A warning cough coming from behind. Arizona bit her lips after caught a glimpse of the eager eyes from the masked faces around her, she repressed the urge to fire back. "Fine, you are the boss in here. But this is not over."

"How about I make you the boss of PEDS in here?" Charlotte leaned over to get a better look of Arizona's handy work. "It will be great to have you in my hospital."

"I am already the boss of PEDS in Seattle Grace, remember?" Finishing the last stitch on the stomach, Arizona handed the instruments to the scrub nurse. "Dr. Wade, would you mind closing it? I have to go. Thank you everyone, it was a great pleasure to work with every one of you."

Arizona walked out of the OR, took off her gloves and gown on the way. Charlotte followed.

"Seriously Arizona, come to St. Ambrose, we can work together like old times. I can get you benefits that other hospital couldn't offer. Think about..." Charlotte leaned against the sink, watching Arizona scrubbed out.

"Thanks for asking, Charlotte. I'm flattered. Super flattered. But I have a job in Seattle, I'm already a chief of PEDS, and I just got a new project. I told you about the clinic, right? I really have no intention to leave Seattle for the moment." Cut off the water, Arizona took the offered towel from her former resident.

"Well, I know. Can't blame me for trying." Charlotte sighed. "Maybe I just missed our time together. We were a great team, weren't we?"

"Yea, except in my intern year. Remember you made me did angioplasty for a whole week? I couldn't eat cheese burger for a month." The blonde scrunched her face while the two of them walked out of the scrub room side by side.

"My resident gave me the same treatment in my intern year. She said that was the best way to learn to respect a patient. Didn't you learn from it?" She nudged Arizona on the shoulder slightly. Both giggled with the memory.

"So, what do you say? Come to LA so we can work together again?" Charlotte tried again. It made Arizona shook her head with a soft chuckle.

"Charlotte, I really can't. And you have to stop tricking me to the memory lane. I agreed to come in for a consult but you dragged me into the OR for... almost 3 hours." She pulled out her mobile from the borrowed lab coat to check the time, and the missed messages. "I had to send Callie away so she won't get bored waiting for me. Now if you excuse me, I have to go find my girlfriend so we can spend the rest of the day together."

"Since when does Arizona Freaking Robbins being so whipped?" Charlotte raised her brow, a smirk in the corner of her lips.

"Oh shut up." Arizona slapped the shoulder of the chief of staff of St. Ambrose hospital after they stepped in the elevator. Luckily there was no one around. "I'm not whipped."

"Yea yea. You are so whipped." Charlotte nudged her friend again. "None of those nurses in Hopkins could rope you. Now, look at you. Can't even leave Callie for 2 hours."

"3 hours!" She protested. "I don't know, maybe because I'm getting old, I think it's time to settle down. I want to settle down."

"Is she the one?" A proud smile on Charlotte face.

Couldn't hide a heartful smile, she nodded. "I mean, for me she is. I hope she felt the same."

Looking at the forgotten mobile in hand, Arizona quickly checked the messages sent by her girlfriend. "Ok, thanks to you Charlotte, I missed my lunch date with my girlfriend. And now she is lying by the swimming pool without me."

"Great! Then you don't have to hurry back there, right? I am sure I have another PEDS case that you can scrub in in the afternoon, if you want..." Exiting the elevator, Charlotte linked her arm with Arizona's, about to drag her toward the OR floor again, but Arizona loosened the lock and stepped backward, laughing.

"No, Charlotte. Stopped trying to make me stay." Gestured her thumb to the locker room. "I really have to go."

Sighed dramatically, Charlotte held out her hand to her former intern. "Well, Arizona Robbins, it's nice to see you again and it's great to see you work today."

Knowing Charlotte long enough, who was never a hugger, Arizona shook the hand and gave it a firm squeeze. "Keep in touch, ok? Come visit me in Seattle?"

"Sure. And if you ever want to change location..." The chief of staff in St. Ambrose narrowed her eyes to Arizona.

"You'll be the first one I call." Arizona gave her a dimpled smile, then turned to the locker room.

After changed back to her own clothes, got in a taxi back to the hotel, she pulled out the phone about to call Callie telling her that she was on the way back. But, she changed her mind, she called someone else instead.

"This is Chief Webber." The man answered the phone after a ring.

"Hi Chief. This is Robbins."

"Oh hi Dr. Robbins. How are you? How is LA? Don't tell me you're calling to extend your holiday. You know your clinic is about to open. And the PEDS ward is chaotic without you. I don't think Dr. Karev couldn't handle it." Webber spoke with the usual seriousness in him. Arizona's authority issues kicked in, she explained stammeringly.

"No, no Chief. I'll arrive tomorrow late afternoon as scheduled, don't worry." She took a deep breath to collect herself, then continued. "I'm calling just... have a personal favor to ask you. If I may, Chief."

"I'm listening."

"You know, Miss Callie Torres, the woman who was with me that evening..."

"Yes?"

"She was supposed to graduate in Millier about 5 or 6 years ago, but for some reasons she had to leave Miami early. She didn't even know if she had passed the examination." The PEDS surgeon was racking her brain, trying to find a way to ask the favor she wanted from the chief…

"You want me to check about it?"

"Yes sir." Arizona chuckled on the phone. Webber was a smart man, and straight forward. "We were talking about the possibility of her finishing Med school and everything else. Is it possible, sir, can you get some information for her too?"

"I'll have Patricia to look into that for you. But no promise." Webber answered.

"I understand that, Chief. Thank you."

"Good. So, I'll see you after tomorrow. Don't be late, I don't think they can't handle another day without their boss." With that, Webber ended the phone.

Arizona held the mobile in hand and gazed out from the window of the taxi. Seeing Charlotte again brought back the good memories in the beginning of being a doctor, the joy, the thrill, the excitement.

It was a shamed that Callie didn't get to experience all this. She went through Med school, she was just a step away from being a doctor, something she wanted to be at that time. It was never too late. Never. Webber could help, especially after she got such a big amount of donation for the hospital, Webber had no reason to deny her... right?

Maybe she was a little bit ahead of it, but the idea of Callie going back to Med school, eventually started her internship and residency to go through all this, brought a smile on her face.

* * *

Callie was wearing an oversize T-shirt under her red bikini, lying on the lounge chair by the hotel swimming pool for over an hour, by herself. She didn't complain because she knew saving lives was Arizona's calling. Therefore, after received a quick kiss from the blonde telling her that Charlotte 'bullied' her to help with the surgery, Callie said goodbye to Addison. She decided to have some alone time under the sun, with a fruity drink, and a good book.

She was about to drift off to sleep. Put down the book on the small table next to the chair, she stretched her arms and let out a yawn. Suddenly, a voice she hadn't heard for years came to her ear.

"Calliope?"

Her eyes snapped opened. Turned her head slightly, she stared at the man who was standing few feet away from her. She sat up slowly, really slowly because she needed the time to think. What was she supposed to react to the father she haven't seen for 6, or 7 years?

* * *

A/N 2: I didn't plan to leave this cliffhanger, I am so sorry. But this chapter was getting too long, double of my usual length and not even finish yet, so I had to cut it in half. The next chapter will be posted within few days, promise.


	20. Chapter 20

Disclaimaer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, I just borrowed the name of the characters for entertaining, no intention to violate any copyrights.

A/N: All mistakes are on me, sorry about this. Really, you have no idea.  
If anyone who follows this story from the beginning and willing to help beta it, please PM me.

* * *

_"Calliope?"_

_Her eyes snapped opened. Turned her head slightly, she stared at the man who was standing few feet away from her. She sat up slowly, really slowly because she needed the time to think. What was she supposed to react to the father she haven't seen for 6, or 7 years?_

Chapter 20

Finally, she pulled up the sunglasses and stood up. "Daddy." She didn't move. It was her father who took the steps to stride toward his long lost daughter.

"Calliope. You... you are more beautiful than I remember." Papa Torres put his hands on Callie's shoulders. His unblinking eyes gazed at the face in front of him liked he wanted to memorize every details of his daughter, the daughter who left the family without a word.

"Daddy, I'm not. I'm just... aged." Callie said sheepishly. As soon as the word left her mouth, she realized she wasn't the only one had aged. She studied the face of the man, except the deeper wrinkles around the green eyes, his beard was greyer than she remembered, and the few remained hair on the side of his head had turned completely white. Nevertheless, the dignity in his appearance haven't weakened at all. "What are you doing in here?"

"For a meeting." Smile softly, papa Torres picked up Callie's hands. "No, I am aged. You have grown up. Look at you. Mija. I've missed you."

Seeing the smile on her father's face, Callie couldn't help to spread to a grin. "I've missed you too, daddy."

"I've tried to find you, where have you been?"

"I... I was in New York..." Callie said in a small voice, tried to avoid the stare from the piercing green eyes.

"Why didn't you call home? For 6 years, not a call, not even a letter. Didn't you know your mother worry about you?" A squeeze from the strong hands, forced Callie to look him in the eyes again.

"Daddy, you kicked me out." She said bashfully.

"I gave you a chance to clear your mind. To make amend. You were supposed to come back to the family, not vanished overnight." Papa Torres's face grew more solemn, that made his daughter's blood boiled.

"Make amend? I didn't do nothing wrong, there had nothing I needed to amend."

"You dated a woman, mija." Papa's brow knitted together, he didn't understand why his always clever child didn't know what she did wrong.

"So?" Callie raised her brow and shrugged, waiting for her father to continue.

"It was a mistake. It wasn't normal, mija. You dated boys. You had boyfriends in school. You were supposed to stop the… phase, or experiment, whatever people called it, and then come home."

"I can't believe it. After so many years, you still can't accept that I like girls." Callie swung her hands free, took a step to the side to extend the distance between her and her father. "Daddy, somebody likes boys, somebody likes girls, it has nothing wrong to like both of them. It wasn't a phase, it wasn't an experiment… where the hell did you learn those phrases?" She screwed up her face and stared at the man.

"I talked to father Kevin." Papa Torres squared his shoulders. "We all pray for you. We pray to God to let you see it clearly, to know it was a sin you were committing."

Callie shut her eyes and said a word in her head, a word that she had never say in front of her father.

"Leviticus: Thou shall not lie with a man as one lies with a female, it is an abomination." Papa Torres took a step closer to Callie again. But she stepped backward.

"It's not the gender that's matter, daddy. It's the person. When I like someone, when I love someone, I don't care it's a he or a she." She furrowed her forehead. "Shouldn't that be the most important concern? To have that person to love and loves me back?"

"Yes! A man, a gentleman suitor!" Papa Torres's eyes flashed with annoyance, and his lips were drawn back in a furious growl, drew the attention of the few other guests around the swimming pool.

"We haven't seen each other for years, and that's all you care about? So what? I can't come home if I'm still into girls? Or I can't call you daddy unless I started to screw boys again?" Tear started to fill in her eyes, but Callie made a gallant attempt to not let it fall. She didn't want to shed a tear in front of the father who won't even try to understand her.

"Calliope, language!" He growled again.

"You know what? I had a terrible year." She pursed her lips to suppress the urge to cry. But a lone tear escaped from her eye, she quickly swept it away. "I needed my family the most. I needed my father. But... no, I am glad I didn't have you in my life."

"Calliope…" Seeing the tears in the big brown eyes inherited from his own mother, the man felt a clench in his heart.

"You are supposed to love me. You are supposed to support me but instead, you turned your back to me because I was in love with a girl. I... I can't." Callie shook her head fiercely, whirled around to escape from her father. But he was fast enough to grasp the wrist of the furious woman.

"Calliope, let's work it out, ok?" Papa Torres said in a softer voice.

On the other side of the swimming pool, Arizona, already changed into her blue bikini, just rounded the corner and trying to look for her gorgeous girlfriend. It took her less than 2 seconds to see the familiar raven hair beauty was harassed by an older man. Without thinking, she ran toward the two of them in full speed.

"Hey hey hey! What are you doing? Let go of her!" Even though the blonde was the shortest and smallest among the 3 of them, she stood between the man and her girlfriend, slapped his forearm that made him loosened the grasp on Callie's wrist.

Both Torres were stunned, for different reasons.

Callie put her hands on the blonde's upper arms when the other was having a staring contest with her father. Somehow she found it funny because none of her previous boyfriends were brave enough to stand against her father. But now, this 5'5" delicate kids doctor was standing here between the two of them, trying to protect her.

"Who are you?" Papa Torres was the one to break the silence.

"Oh. Yes." It stirred Callie from her thought. She ran her hands up and down the blonde's arms to ease her tension. "Arizona, this is my father. Yes, the father who disowned his own daughter because she is gay." She added sarcastically after seeing the shock look on her girlfriend's face.

"Calliope!" Papa Torres warned his daughter, gave her a quick glance then turned his gaze back to the shorter woman in front of him.

"Daddy, this is Arizona, my girlfriend. Not just a friend who is a girl, this is the woman I love." Callie stared at her father with a stone cold face, dared him to say anything.

But he didn't. He just kept his gaze to Arizona, and shook the offered hand. They shared a very firm hand shake.

"Arizona Robbins, nice to meet you, sir." Arizona plastered on a dimpled smile, but her eyes remained determined.

"So, if you excuse me, daddy. Arizona and I need to go." Callie broke the linked hands, grasped Arizona's hand in hers. "It was a surprise but yea, very nice to see you again. You take care."

She gave her father a tight smile, then pulled her girlfriend to leave with her.

"Calliope Iphegenia Torres." Papa Torres called after them. But Callie didn't stop.

Arizona looked over her shoulder. She saw the defeated look on the old man, a look of a heart broken father.

After they rounded the corner, Arizona pulled the brunette to stop. Leaned closer to Callie, she asked softly. "Are you OK?"

"Yes, I'm fine." Callie answered after a deep breath. Forced a smile toward the worried blonde, who just raised a hand to cup her cheek. "Can we… go back to the room first? I wanna…"

"Sure, sure…" Arizona didn't wait for Callie to finish, tugged the linked hand striding toward the elevator. But the brunette stopped suddenly.

"Shoot. I forgot my phone and the keycard on the table." She looked back to the direction of the swimming pool, then turned to look at the blonde with a frown.

"Take my key. You go back to the room, I'll get the stuffs, ok?" She shoved the keycard in Callie's hand, who took it with hesitation. "Go. I'll be there in 2 minutes."

After seeing Callie disappeared behind the closed elevator, Arizona quickly walked toward the swimming pool. She was not surprise to see papa Torres was sitting on the lounge chair where should be occupied by Callie earlier.

Walked closer to the man, she found that he was staring at Callie's mobile in his hand.

"Mr. Torres, I... umm... come to get back the phone." She kept a two steps distance with the father of her girlfriend, not going to invade his personal space.

"She looked happy in the picture." Without lifting his head, green eyes still glued to the screen lock picture of the phone.

"We took it 2 days ago, yes, she was happy." A genuine smile across Arizona's face, she knew that picture, Addison took it for them that afternoon when they went to visit her and Henry. They were sitting on the deck, drinking and chatting, the sun was setting behind them, it was a great afternoon. Addison voluntarily picked up Callie's mobile to take picture of the two of them. They both plastered a gentle smile on and looked at the device stiffly. Suddenly, Callie turned to lick the back of her ear with the warm and wet tongue, hand tickled her side in the meantime. Addison successfully captured the moment Callie was laughing to try to hold down the squirming blonde in her arms.

"This is a sin." Papa Torres cast a sidelong glance at Arizona, but the face was not as tight as minutes ago.

"Of being happy?" She raised her brow. Of course she knew this wasn't what he was talking about.

"You know what I mean." After another hard glance to the woman, papa Torres fixated on the screen in his hand.

"No, I don't, sir." Arizona breathed out softly. She closed the 2 steps distance, sitting down next to the man.

"I don't know you well enough to talk about my daughter." He sat up straight, finally took his gaze away from the phone. A hint of disappointed on his face when he realized his daughter didn't come back with this woman.

"You are right, you don't know me. And I don't think you know your daughter as well." Arizona tilted her head to look at the man next to her. She got a glare in return.

"How dare you!"

"You can dispraise me as you like, sir." Arizona said quietly. "But don't tell me you know her, you have no idea what she had been through."

Papa Torres didn't retort. He kept his gaze on this blonde hair woman. He wanted to know desperately, but he was too proud to ask.

Arizona could see it in his eyes.

"You didn't know Callie was deeply in love with a wonderful woman, who also loved your daughter so much that would break up with her, so Callie wouldn't see her died in cancer." Arizona said slowly. She wasn't comfortable to tell the story because it wasn't hers to tell. But she knew she had to, for Callie's sake.

"Callie was devastated. She lost her direction, almost lost her will to live. She didn't care anything anymore. She married the guy who stuck around her. She wasn't even sober when they got married in Vegas."

Green eyes flashed with shock. But papa Torres quickly shifted his gaze to the far end of the swimming pool.

"I knew all these only slightly over a month ago. She went through hell alone. I felt terrible that it wasn't me stayed by her side to give her a shoulder to cry on, I wasn't in the picture yet. She was all by herself."

They sat there in silence. Arizona was waiting for any response from the man, but he remained stone cold. Finally, she held out her palm to ask for the phone.

"I should go, Callie's waiting."

Papa Torres looked back down on the phone in hand. He pressed the button to display the screen lock picture one more time.

"She is my daughter. How can I bear the idea of not seeing her in heaven?" He sighed.

Looking up to the blue sky, Arizona took a deep breath. Smile before she started to talk.

"Most people think that I was named for the state. But no. I was named for a battle ship, the U.S.S. Arizona." She nodded to papa Torres when she felt the green eyes staring at her face.

"I came from a military family. My father is Colonel Daniel Robinson of the United States Marine Corps. He named me Arizona in honor of my grandfather who was serving on the ship when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. He saved nineteen men before he drowned."

"Nevertheless, for me, I was never afraid to come out to my father because I know he loves me." Arizona chuckled, shook her head slightly. "I remember it was the night before my sixteenth birthday. It was just he and I sitting on the couch watching a movie. Suddenly, he paused the screen and said to me how I should be cautioned when picking a boyfriend. And I answered him, that would be something he never has to worry about because I am a lesbian."

"He looked at me with wide eyes, the same expression as you are having now." Dimpled smile displayed, made the man snapped his head to the other direction with embarassment. "My dad put the movie back on. After a while he stopped it again. In that second I started to panic for real. I thought I misjudged the love from him, I thought he was going to kick me out of the house. Instead, he asked me, am I still who he raised me to be? Am I still a good man in a storm, to love my country, love my family, to protect the things I love? That was the only thing he concerned."

Papa Torres stood up from the lounge chair. Square his shoulders before turned around to face the blonde. The solemnness found the way back on his face.

"Are you telling me, I'm not as a good father as yours?"

"No Mr. Torres, I don't dare." Arizona shot up immediately. "Just, my father believes in country the way that you believe in God, and my father is not a man who bends, but he bent for me because I am his daughter. If you really love Callie, can you at least try to understand her?"

"How can I understand it when she was willing to throw away her family, her trust fund, her future? How can I understand it when she just dropped out of med school, to become a bartender, to be with a woman?"

Arizona sighed heavily. She could clearly see where Callie's stubbornness came from.

"Mr. Torres, this is not going anywhere. And you know Callie didn't back down 6 years ago, she is not going to doing that now. I am not threatening you. If you are willing to try, willing to be a part of her life again, it would mean the world to her."

She held out her palm for the phone again. This conversation lasted way longer than she excepted, and sadly it seemed worthless. Now she just wanted to go check on her girlfriend.

Papa Torres passed the mobile to the blonde grudgingly. "How long are you two going to stay in here?" He asked.

"We'll leave tomorrow afternoon."

"So, going back to New York?"

"Uh nope. We are going to Seattle. Callie lives in Seattle now."

"Seattle." He nodded, watching the blonde picked up the keycard and book. "Miss Robbins…"

"You can call me Arizona, Mr. Torres." Arizona stood straight after gathered everything, smiled to the man.

"Arizona." Papa Torres bit his lips to a thin line before started to talk. "Take care of her, would you?"

"Of course, sir. But it's not like she needs someone to take care of her. She is strong, and caring, and honorable. She is who you raised her to be."

* * *

When Arizona got back to the room, she found her girlfriend lying on bed, with her arm across her eyes. Quickly crawled on bed settled next to the brunette, laid on her side, propped her head in hand.

"Hey, are you ok?"

"What took you so long?" Callie asked, eyes still hid behind her arm.

"I'd talk to your dad." Arizona said like a whisper, stared at the impassive face, waiting for some sort of reaction.

"Figured." The brunette let out a heavy sigh.

Picked up Callie's free hand, Arizona gently caressed each fingers with her thumb. "Are you crying?"

"No." A short answer came out of the plump lips. It wasn't convincing, but Arizona decided not to push. So, she just kept stroking the hand in hers.

"I think…" Callie lowered her arm to her side, staring at the ceiling with dulled eyes. She didn't lie, she wasn't crying. "I can stop entertaining any thoughts of actually getting back together with my family."

"He loves you." Still saying in a soft voice, Arizona leaned closer to looking into brown eyes, but they were still looking straight ahead unblinkingly.

"He loved the straight me." Callie snorted loudly.

"Do you want to talk about it?" The blonde brought the tanned hand to her lips. Callie finally turned her gaze to look at her girlfriend. A small smile had shown on her face.

"It's fine, really." Entwined their fingers, Callie placed the linked hand on her stomach. "After all these years, I kinda realized that, I don't need a father. I don't, not one who won't accept me."

"Callie…" The furrow in Arizona's brow deepened. She remembered the sad green eyes. She remembered the conflict on that drawn and haggard face. She remembered the hurt on that face when Callie walked away from him. "He couldn't accept it because he doesn't understand it. Maybe you should give him another chance? Talk to him? It'd been years, maybe he had changed?"

"He won't change." Callie said with a sneer. "He's hopelessly headstrong, the most stubborn person alive. No one would be able to make him change his mind."

Arizona had to bite the inside of her mouth to repress a smirk.

"Not even the love to his daughter?"

"Not toward his gay daughter. He prayed with the priest, he tried to pray away the gay. He quoted the bible again!" Callie blew out a frustrated sigh. Suddenly, she loosened their entwined hands, propped herself up by the elbows. "Why are you siding him? What did he tell you?"

The blonde was taken aback by the sudden change of mood. Pulled back a little, she could see the resemblance of the two Torres.

"I am not taking his side. Just… I want you to be happy. And I believe having your family back in your life will make you happy." Arizona put on her best dimpled smile. Callie squinted at her, but a ghost of smile played around the plump lips.

Finally Callie leaned forward to place a tender kiss on the blonde smiling lips. "Having you makes me happy." She said before flopped back on the mattress. Arizona laid closer, Callie wrapped her arms around the slimmer body in an instant.

A fair hand sneaked under the T-shirt Callie was wearing, writing invisible pattern on her stomach.

"He seemed so sad." Arizona said after a moment of silence. She felt a kiss on the top of her head.

"Because you don't know him. He is known as the most intimidated man in Miami." Callie chuckled, finger tips ran up and down the fair arm, the one that was brushing her torso so lightly. "I thought you have authority issue? The way you stood between us was very hot."

"Really?" Arizona tilted her head to look at the brunette, who was looking back at her with proud in her eyes.

"Oh, Really. So hot." Callie inched closer to the woman in her arms, smiled when the other moved up so their lips could touch. They kissed softly, lovingly.

"There was one time," Callie said after they broke the kiss, the blonde head rested back on her shoulder. "He caught me made out with a quarterback in the back of his car, by the driveway of our house. I think we went to second base." Her smile spread wider to a naughty grin when she saw her girlfriend screwed up the face in disgust. "Long story short, he scared the shit out of that 6'3" high school quarterback, who didn't dare to come close to me ever again."

"He was polite to me."

"Well, lucky you." Callie broke into a soft laughter suddenly. "He didn't see the bite marks you left on my chest."

"Haven't fade yet?" Arizona propped herself up by an elbow, used her free hand to lift the loosen T-shirt clinging on her girlfriend's body. Couldn't hide the snicker when she saw the hickeys she left across the tantalizing flesh.

"What do you think?" Callie rolled her eyes. Finger pointed to a particular angry mark above her left boob. "You almost broke the skin. I had to hide it behind the shirt. Told you, I can't walk around in the hotel like that."

"Oh poor you…" Arizona leaned forward, wanted to place a kiss on the bite mark, but Callie pushed her away.

"No way, I won't let you leave another mark on me."

"We'll see." The blonde smirked. Her hand flew straight to roam on the bikini top. She lowered herself to capture the waiting lips.

But before she could sneak under the tiny material, Callie placed a hand on top of hers to stop it go further. Pulled away from the full lips, Arizona gazed at the brown eyes with question.

"Still few hours before sunset, how about we go to the beach down the street now? I want to see this sexy blue bikini under the sun."

Placed one more kiss on the full lips, Arizona pulled her girlfriend up from the bed, strode toward the front door.

* * *

Back in Seattle, the two men were sitting across the bar top of Horizon, both staring at the door in absolutely astounded.

"Should we call her?" Joe asked after the figure passed the door, rounded the corner, away from their sights.

Mark picked up the scotch and finished it in one gulp. He looked up to meet the big man's worried eyes. Bit his lips to a thin line, pondered it for a while…

"Nope, don't call her. Let her be happy for one more day."


End file.
